Once Upon a Time
by Arisa Aihara
Summary: When you reach a certain age, a character from this book will come to life and you’ll have to help him understand the theme of his story. Your job now, Naminé, is to help Prince Roxas understand the theme of HIS story...love.
1. Chapter 1

**Once Upon a Time…**

**Summary:**

When you reach a certain age, a character from this book will come to life and you'll have to help him understand the theme of his story. Your job now, Naminé, is to help Prince Roxas understand _his _theme — love.

(N) a (m) I (x) a (s)

* * *

—1—

She still remembered that one day when she had first laid eyes on that mysterious book. It was very thick and looked grand — the kind of look that gave you the feeling that it's special, that it's _important —_ and yes, she wanted to know so badly what was inside. As curious as a four-year-old could get, she asked her mother about the book (because the book was in one of the 'restricted shelves' in the living room).

"Mama?" she asked, and the woman turned away from the newspaper to look at her. "I've been wondering a lot about _that _book," she said, pointing. There was a pause, where her mother looked from her face, to her pointing finger, and lastly to the book. She blinked a few times before putting down her tea cup.

"Well," she said in a weird voice, "that belongs to your father. I believe he'd left it behind. Maybe you should ask him about it sometimes."

"Oh…" At the sound of the word 'father', her heart began to lift: she loved visiting Papa and his wonderful personal art gallery in the basement. Mama and Papa had a divorce, and she honestly didn't know why they should do that — Mama was a kind person and Papa was simply amazing. "Then can I bring the book to Papa's this weekend?"

"Hmm, sure," her mother replied, not looking at her. She took the book and ran upstairs into her room to read it. She eyed it for several minutes — feeling really _stunned — _because she was very sure that the book was magical. She finally sat down on the floor, placed the book carefully in front of her, and opened it.

The book appeared to be a very old book, and yet it had been very well taken care of: none of the pages were torn, and there weren't any peanut butter stains or anything. What made Naminé adore the book more was the fact that the words in the book looked as if someone had _written _them — it didn't look like it was typed out.

On the very first page was a dedication. It read:

_To my darlings_

Whoever this book was dedicated to, Naminé was sure that they (since the word _'darlings' _was used) were very special to the author. She turned to the next page: the index.

* * *

_CONTENTS_

_The Door to the Other World ...…2_

_The Tale of the Twelve Sacra Cousins ...…24_

_Don't Follow the Music! ...…48_

_The White Carriage ...61

* * *

_

And on and on the titles went. Each story title interested Naminé, and she couldn't wait to read them all (one story was entitled _'War of the Keys'_) — she eagerly turned to the next page — _The Door to the Other World —_ and then—!

Her bedroom door burst opened. Her mother stood there, looking out of breath.

"Oh, hello darling," she said quickly as she got in. She eyed the opened book. "Have you started reading?"

"No—"

"Good!" Naminé's mother said almost at once, bending down and snatching the book from the floor. The woman closed the book and hugged it tightly. Naminé frowned at her mother's behaviour. "I don't want you to read this."

Naminé felt confused, and then a little furious. "But wh—?"

"Because!" her mother said, raising her voice. Naminé's confusion doubled. Her mother then softened her expression, and knelt down. "Because," she repeated, gently this time, "I think your father will be mad at me for letting you read it alone."

"But _why?" _Naminé asked. Her mother smiled, and turned the book around so that she could show Naminé the back cover. She pointed at the bottom right corner: there was a name there. _Matsuda._

"Matsuda?" Naminé read. "That's father's name!"

"Yes, indeed," said her mother, smiling still. "This book has been in your father's family for _ages. _So it's his now — that's why I think he'd be upset if I let you have it without his permission."

"Oh," said Naminé, "that makes sense. Why didn't you just say so earlier?"

Her mother straightened up and walked towards the door. "I'm making some lemonade after this. Join me?"

Naminé couldn't help but wonder why her mother had avoided her last question, but she didn't repeat the question. She just replied that she would love to help her in the kitchen.

—X—

Weekend came, and Naminé was so excited to see her father. She couldn't wait to ask him if she could read the book — her mother had hid it away from her and she _had _looked, but simply couldn't find it. Nonetheless, today…_today, _she was going to read it.

"Mama!" she called excitedly as she looked out of her bedroom window. "Mama, Papa's here! Mama, hurry, open the door!"

Naminé leaped off her bed to brush her hair, and then she grabbed her little bag (which contained her sketch book and her drawing tools) before going downstairs. Her mother had already opened the door, and the adults were having a very formal and polite conversation. Naminé stood beside her mother.

"Morning, Papa!"

"Hey!" her father greeted as he knelt down. "Good morning to you too — how are you lately?"

"Great, as usual," she said. "Papa, I found your story book!" she then added, unable to contain her excitement any longer. Her father's eyes sort of widened for a while, and then he looked up to meet her mother's eyes.

"My story book?" he repeated. Naminé nodded.

"And I said she can read it with _you," _her mother said, handing her father the magical-looking book with a funny expression. It looked as if she was mad with Naminé's father for possessing the book. "So, I hope you two will have a great time together. Give me a call when you're ready to come home, okay, sweetie?"

"Okay," Naminé said. Her mother kissed her on the cheek, and then she was off with her father.

—X—

"Mama doesn't seem to like the idea of me reading this book," Naminé said. The two of them were in the car, and her father stole a sideways glance for a moment.

"Oh?" he simply said.

Naminé examined the name 'Matsuda' at the back cover. "Maybe because it's your family's book, you know. I'm not a Matsuda, so maybe that's why. Can I flip through the book?"

"Why, sure," her father said, surprised at the sudden change of topic. And so, Naminé flipped through the pages. There were a total of twenty stories in the index, and again, she couldn't wait to read them. She flipped through the pages, taking in the illustrations as she went on. Her thin smile soon disappeared and she later frowned.

She flipped through the last pages again and again. Her father seemed to have noticed her behaviour.

"What's wrong?" he asked as he took a left junction.

"The pages," Naminé replied shortly as she examined the last pages again and again. "They're _empty!"_

This was indeed true: there were about twenty to thirty blank pages at the back, but the weirdest thing was that the page numbers were there...but the stories weren't there.

"Papa, what's wrong with the book?" she asked, looking at her father. The man looked at her with this weird expression — he seemed reluctant to answer her question. "Papa?"

"I don't know," he said at last as the car stopped in front of a rather huge house. "It's been like that for a long time — I've asked your grandfather too, you know, but he said he didn't know as well. Come now, let's get inside."

Naminé trailed behind her father, still frowning. There was something funny about this book: first, her mother didn't let her read it on her own, and now her father was avoiding her question…

However, Naminé's curiosity faded away as her father showed her his newest paintings in his art gallery, and she forgot all about it once she started reading the book.

But her father would soon explain everything to her, and when _that _day comes, she would most probably wish that she had not noticed the book in the first place.


	2. Chapter 2

**Once Upon a Time…**

**A/N: **Umm, thanks for your votes! I am proud to announce that only 5 people voted for Sora-reality, 4 for Kairi-reality and 2 each for Sora- and Kairi-fairy tale from my poll! (Yes, if you're thinking what you're _supposed _to be thinking, you're right! — I am disappointed with the poll! I guess not many people took it seriously… [Oh well, I _have _been on hiatus for… (counts)…a **long **time! So who the heck would take my polls seriously, right?] Okay, whatever.)

Chapter two! WOOT! XD

* * *

—2—

"_Once upon a time, there was a prince named Roxas who rarely smiled and rarely laughed, but he was not unfriendly, although most people said he was. Prince Roxas had an older brother about his age who was the total opposite of him: his older brother always smiled and loved to laugh — and although their father, the King, was a kind and fair man, Prince Roxas could always tell that he loved the other prince more. So poor Prince Roxas, who was actually a shy person, always stayed out of his father and brother's way, and grew quieter and quieter each day."_

"Naminé — come and help me a little, sweetie, please."

The four-year-old child who was previously resting cosily on the sofa slowly sat up, still clutching a thick red book. Naminé watched quietly as her mother tried once again to put on a marvellous pearl necklace around her neck, but with much difficulty.

"Sweetie — come on and help me, _please?"_ her mother said again, looking at her reflection at the mirror. Rolling her eyes on purpose, Naminé slowly stood up and went towards her mother. She tugged at her mother's dressed and, smiling, her mother crouched down so Naminé could help her with the necklace.

Sighing impatiently, Naminé said, "Turn around, mama!"

Laughing a little, her mother obliged. When the girl's tiny hands had done its work, her mother thanked her and faced the mirror once more, this time to apply some lipstick on. Sighing silently, Naminé went to the sofa once more and flipped through the pages of the book slowly without even reading the words.

"Can't you just send me to papa's?" she complained.

"Now, now, Naminé — we've talked about this before, haven't we?" said her mother absent-mindedly before smacking her lips. "Jecht wanted so much to meet you and I've promised him that he will finally have the pleasure of doing so tonight."

Turning around and once more crouching down, her mother smiled. "It's going to be a _great _dinner, Naminé, trust me."

Little Naminé could only sigh again. What else could she say?

* * *

"_As Prince Roxas grew up, the castle people began to say that he had a heart of stone: even when introduced to princes and princesses and lords and ladies at a grand ball, not once did Prince Roxas smile nor talk. He merely let his brother greet and attend to all the guests, and he let his brother dance with all the agreeable girls and ladies, while he simply stood there by his brother's side and answer people's polite inquiries with equal politeness._

"_The news travelled fast, and soon the whole kingdom started calling Prince Roxas 'The one with the heart of stone'. How wrong they were — they appeared to know __**nothing**__ about their own prince."_

Laughter filled the magnificent dining hall, and the clock struck eight. Naminé only managed a superficial smile as she watched her mother, Jecht and Tidus (Jecht's son from his previous marriage) laugh some more at Jecht's 'amusing' story of how he always got confused about the junction near Naminé's house.

When _finally _the dull subject was dropped, Naminé rolled her eyes before taking large gulps out of her drinking glass. She managed to hide a burp just in time before Jecht addressed her out of the blue, like so:

"Ah yes, Naminé — I've got something for yeh," said he, winking and then, bending slightly towards the floor, he soon placed a pretty paper bag on the table. "I think I know someone who's turning nine toda-a-ay…!"

"Oh, that's _so _sweet of you, Jecht!"

"Dad browsed the shop _forever_ to find THAT one," said Tidus.

"That's _really _sweet of you, Jecht — I don't know how — oh, _Jecht—"_

"Nah, it's nothin' — nothin'! Let's not fuss over it, eh!"

"Naminé, thank Uncle Jecht for this pleasant surprise, sweetie."

"Thanks," Naminé said under her breath, and neither of the adults heard her because they were still going through some 'That's so sweet of you's and 'No, no, not at all's — Naminé rolled her eyes and accidentally caught Tidus'. She blushed, but soon discovered that the boy, too, was suppressing a grin. This made her laugh a little.

"Open it up! Open it up, go on Mimi-chan," said Jecht.

"I _hate it _when he calls me that…"

"What was that, dear?"

"Oh! Umm — nothing! I said — what a lovely bag!"

Here, the adults agreed and _again _got involved in a series of flatteries and praises.

"Umm — LISTEN, you…guys, all of you," she said loudly. Still smiling and showing their white teeth at each other, but clearly paying attention _now, _the adults looked at her. "I'm gonna open this up but — before that… Uncle Jecht?"

"Yes, princess?"

Naminé had to refrain from rolling her eyes.

"It's really nice of you to bring me a birthday present and all — but I think it's quite _fake."_

Pause.

"What's fake, dear?" her mother asked briskly, looking as if she was deeply offended, but trying not to show it, but failing in doing so, and looking like _all _of this at once.

"That's real paper, Mimi-chan, I assure you," said Jecht, nodding at the paper bag.

"No, not the bag — by fake, I mean, _fake _fake, like — your intention, it's fake," she said.

Jecht now had a puzzled smile on his face, and her mother already had this warning sign written all over her face. Tidus was giggling silently, amused with the whole scene. Naminé sighed silently.

"Next time you wish to give a girl her ninth birthday present," she said, tearing the parcel up carefully and taking out a pair of shoes fashioned into something like a pair of ballet shoes, "I think you should check her _birth date _first."

She paused. Everyone stared at her. Jecht's smile was wearing off and he looked almost stupid like that.

"Or what she's interested in," she added, now examining the pink shoes with a frown on her face. Then, returning her attentions to the people in front of her, she spoke, "For your information, Uncle, I'll be celebrating my birthday _next week."_

A stupider pause occurred, and it was filled with Tidus' giggles.

"But thank you all the same," she concluded briskly, throwing the shoes back into the paper bag and standing up to leave. "Sometimes I think you don't quite know me at all, Uncle Jecht."

Tidus burst out laughing, and Naminé left the dining hall with a smile on her face.

* * *

"_It was soon decided that Prince Roxas' brother was to leave the kingdom alongside the King, to travel north and meet up with the King's old friend in the neighbouring kingdom. Of course, Prince Roxas was excited for he had never travelled that far before — so it was quite hard to imagine how he felt when the King told him that instead of going north with his father and brother, he was to go south, with a few of the King's advisors and council members, to settle a small war in a land there._

'_You mean to say, father,' Prince Roxas repeated with much difficulty, 'that I am not needed in your party to meet King Nomura?'_

'_Oh, don't put it that way, my prince!' replied the King heartily. 'This journey of yours will be an adventure, my son! It is but a small trifle — a small war — and I trust Axel will guide you through everything, so don't you worry.'_

"_Clearly, Prince Roxas was not worried about anything — he was disappointed, crestfallen, heartbroken, and angry. He felt as if he was being abandoned by his own father."_

"But papa — you can't seriously do that."

"Why ever not?"

"Because—"

Naminé took out the large bag that her father had just dumped into the trunk of the car.

"Because I will be lonely if you go away, papa, you know that!"

"Nonsense," was her father's reply, as he returned with another bag and, after dumping that one into the trunk, he took the one that Naminé had removed, and placed it back inside the trunk as well. "You'll have your mother."

"She's rarely at home."

"You two can do some shopping together!"

"She spends her weekends with Uncle Jecht." (When saying the last bit of the sentence, Naminé made a face).

"Good — then you can come with them."

She stared at her father. "The last time I did, I discovered that they only kissed each other throughout the whole _Pirates of the Caribbean _movie at the cinema."

"So spend your time with Tidus."

"He's a dork."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"And a blitzball fanatic."

"Same question repeated."

"Both good and bad."

"There you go — always look on the bright side then, Nami-chan."

"Oh, come on, papa… You _can't _go like this. Not now."

"Then when?"

"When I get married."

Her father laughed and stopped loading the trunk of the car with his bags. He stood in front of his twelve-year-old daughter, and patted her on the head warmly.

"Dearest," said he, "I will come back — it's only a three-week long exhibition."

"Then take me with you."

"Have you asked your mother about it…?"

Naminé groaned. "Just — just take me with you, papa, take me with you!"

"She said 'no', right?"

Naminé made a sulking face, but her father merely chuckled before resuming his previous task. Silence took over for quite some time before her father returned to her. Smiling warmly, he gave Naminé a hug, which she returned affectionately.

"I know something," said her father, "why don't you continue your little project, and when I come back home I'll be able to see your paintings without the agony of waiting, hmm?"

Naminé smiled. The little project mentioned was her paintings: she had begun to paint a series of pictures for each story in the red storybook of hers. So far, she had painted pictures for two of the stories — that alone took her almost one whole month.

She silently agreed to this, although deep inside, she really wanted to follow her father and attend the exhibition herself. Why her mother didn't consent her request was a puzzle to her.

And so, with a sad heart and a deep feeling of abandonment, she was forced to watch her father drive away, all the while waving at him and wearing a small smile on her face.

* * *

"_Little did anyone knew that the two planned journeys were nothing but a scheme to steal the throne from the King, and this wicked scheme was led by one of the King's most trusted advisors, Xemnas. The journeys did not begin simultaneously — Prince Roxas had to go early, since the little war was threatening to spread over the land._

"_Oh, how heavy the prince's heart was when he began his journey! He neither talked nor smiled at his father and brother as they bid him farewell, and he neither talked nor smiled when Axel, the King's council member who was in charge of the operation, told him the history of the land they were approaching or even when he joked about the scenery._

"_Prince Roxas' party reached a small town and decided to rest there for the night. After a solemn and quiet dinner, the young prince went to his room and eventually fell asleep with his mind full of his father and his brother. Imagine what adventure those two must be in by tomorrow! Imagine how merry everyone would be once King Nomura greeted them into his castle! Imagine how tempting the meals and drinks would be — with silver plate and golden goblets!_

"_With these weary thoughts, our poor prince had fallen asleep — but his sleep was disturbed not long after that when loud knocks on his door was heard. It was like a wake up call from his dreams…"_

Clap, clap, clap — "Very good, Miss Nakamura, _very _good!"

This comment from her literature teacher had managed to pull Naminé back to reality. Only then she remembered that she was in her literature class, and only then she remembered that she was telling her favourite story in front of the whole class. She blinked and quickly took in the scene that was in front of her: her classmates' behaviours varied so much from one to another — someone at the back was snoring lightly, and a pair of students near the door was busy playing small pranks at each other.

"I admire your intonation," her teacher went on, still smiling as she wrote something on the marking sheets, "and you are very articulate indeed…!"

Naminé gave a small smile. She was sure that she had at least secured an 'A' for her assignment.

Her teacher finally looked up at her, still smiling, and said, "And of course, I adore your paintings, Miss Nakamura — you have done a very good job. Class, give her a round of applause!"

Needless to say, the class began to applause, but in a very unenthusiastic way. Naminé didn't mind though. She was satisfied. She had been planning this for a whole week: her intonation was indeed very good, and she was glad her painting could help.

Soon, the bell rang and the class immediately dispersed, with the teacher shouting reminders about their homeworks. Quietly, Naminé stood up from the stool in front of the class and went to the blackboard to collect her paintings that she had earlier placed there. The class was already empty by then.

"Oh, how heavy the prince's heart was as he began his journey…!"

Seventeen-year-old Naminé jumped in surprise as someone spoke those words in a low voice. In the process of jumping in surprise, she had accidentally elbowed the person (but only lightly) who was standing quite close behind her, and she had dropped the red storybook. Turning around, she met a pair of beautiful green eyes.

"Goodness— Aikawa, you scared me!" she said, pressing one hand on her chest to calm herself down. The other person merely let out a small, "Heh" before bending down to pick up the fallen storybook. Naminé busied herself with her paintings, trying to avoid the other's eyes as long as she could.

"You're really good at this stuff," commented Riku Aikawa as he read the index of the storybook. "Frankly speaking, I was amazed when you read that story aloud — my mother sucked badly at bedtime stories, as far as I could remember."

Naminé watched as her silver haired classmate flipped through the pages slowly. "Wow, you were actually _listening _to me throughout the whole thing, huh?" she said as they began to walk out of class together slowly, with Riku still examining the storybook.

"Well, yeah — been trying to catch your eye, but you were so into the story."

They continued walking in this manner for some time until they reached the lockers — and needless to say that almost each student that they passed had stopped to look and stare at them as they proceeded. She wasn't surprised though — Riku _was, _after all, voted as one of the top three hottest guys in Enix High, and the sight of him walking alongside _the _quiet Naminé Nakamura was indeed something to stare at, all right.

"Okay! So — I'm _really_ gonna need that back, because I'm going home—"

Calmly, Naminé stopped Riku from flipping to the next page by holding his hand, and using her other hand, she took the book away from him, smiling politely to show that she was not displeased at him at all, but was simply in a hurry to get back home. The latter gave a small smile, but the former tried to ignore it by turning her attention to her locker.

"I'm supposed to present my project this Thursday," said Riku, "and I'm kinda nervous."

Wondering why on earth Riku Aikawa was telling _her _about _this, _Naminé proceeded with her task of taking the necessary books into her bag and said calmly, "Well, I assure you that you can just chill because I think most of the girls would gladly give you their fullest attention."

"_Most _of the girls?"

"Yes, _most _of the girls."

"Meaning, you included?"

"Yeah, I'll try my best," said she casually as they walked out of the school building, "but you could kill off my attention if you read so much like a robot, so beware."

He gave a small amused laughter at this comment of hers. Then he dropped the subject almost immediately by asking, "Hey, you goin' that way?"

"Yes, my house is just down the road."

"C'mon, I can walk with you th—"

"Hey, Riku! Yoo-hoo!"

Both of them turned around and saw a group of teenagers at the other side of the road, waving at Riku.

"It's bad to abandon your friends just because you wanted to pester _me_, you know," she said sarcastically, yet monotonously.

"You guys go on ahead!" he shouted back, barely listening to Naminé's sarcastic comment. Then, turning to her, he said, "Nah, they can manage without me—"

"Oh, _come on!"_

"Move it, lover boy!"

"Hurry _up, _Riku, we don't have all day!"

The last comment was made in so impatient a way by Kairi Miyamori that Naminé was so sure Riku's head was going to be chopped off soon afterwards if he did not comply.

Naminé raised an eyebrow at Riku. "You were saying…?"

"Oh… Oh, _snap…"_

She giggled at this remark, and said, "Just go already, s'not like I can't walk by myself."

"Are you sure? Besides—"

Before Riku could finish his sentence, or Naminé could say anything, someone _else _came running towards them and, with a cheerful smile, said:

"Hey Nami!" Then, turning to Riku, "Hey, Riku."

"Hey Tidus," Naminé said gratefully, "you're out early — no blitzball practices today?"

"Nope, cancelled," replied Tidus cheerily, whom she had always called 'my about-to-be' brother ever since she was four years old. Tidus carelessly played around with the blue blitzball ball as he said:

"Is Aunt Nakamura at home? Perhaps I can come with you back home today, I have—"

Naminé didn't even wait to listen to what Tidus had to say, but she had immediately agreed to have Tidus walk back home with her to avoid Riku. "Yeah, sure Tidus, of course you can — I can manage alone, Riku, really — don't let your friends wait for you—"

"But—"

"Good day to you, say hello to your friends for me!" said Naminé, dragging Tidus (who was grinning and waving at the impatient party across the street) away with her.

"Bye-bye…!" Tidus said carelessly, waving one last time at them. Hiding a smile from the disappointed Riku, Naminé sighed in relief.

—X—

"_The night was dark, and Prince Roxas could somehow tell that something was amiss. He immediately opened the door, and soon stood face to face with Axel._

'_Milord,' said the red haired man, 'forgive me for disturbing you, but I must tell you this: a most dreadful news has reached us — the castle has been surrounded.'_

'_Surrounded?' Prince Roxas repeated with a frown. Behind Axel, he could see some of his men carrying a badly injured knight into a room. 'What happened to that man?' he demanded as he recognised that the knight was wearing the complete armoury when engaging in a battle or a war. 'Pray, tell me at once!'_

"_Here, Axel asked the prince to sit down and be calm. The injured knight was one of the few, who survived an unexpected attack on the castle. None foresaw the attack, said the knight, and the King tried his best to manage his knights and his defence party, but apparently the enemy was large and very prepared. Everything was well-planned._

"_The prince was listening carefully to each of Axel's word, but they were interrupted when one of his men came in to deliver new information:_

'_Your highness — the knight had just passed out — he was badly injured by weapons and — and also by dark magic. That is not all, my lord — he managed to tell us that the King and the Prince are in danger — they had each turned into stone!'_

"_This new information could not be accepted by Prince Roxas at first—"_

Naminé groaned as her cell phone rang. Putting aside the storybook, she got off her bed and answered it.

"_Hey sweetie! It's me—"_

"Hey, mama," she replied dryly.

"_Listen, honey — could you perhaps order some pizza or go out with your friends tonight? I'm afraid I'm going to be quite late tonight—"_

"Dinner with Uncle Jecht again?"

Her mother gave a tinkling laughter. _"Oh, you're such a tease, Nami-chan!"_

"Ask him to propose already, it's been almost thirteen years mama."

"_Hush, none of that, honey," _her mother said briskly. _"Okay, I have to go now — make sure you eat something tonight — bye sweetie—!"_

Duu…

Naminé rolled her eyes and tossed her cell phone away. "Make sure you eat something tonight, or what? You'll cry yourself each night to sleep when I die of starvation?"

She threw herself onto her bed again and stared at the ceiling for a long time. It had been almost two hours since Tidus left, and so it had been two hours since she had been alone. She knew what to expect though — she would be left alone in this manner until bedtime, and she wasn't surprised at all. Lately, her mother rarely spent time at home. It was always, "Jecht asked me out for lunch" or "I'll be late — dinner with Jecht".

Sighing, she rolled to the other side of the bed and stared at the framed photograph of her father. Naminé smiled as she saw her five-year-old self in that photograph — she was such a geeky girl (or so she thought) back then, but her father kept denying it…

Her father, too, had been very busy lately. Three years ago, he made a fortune through his paintings and other arts, and now he was often busy. Naminé felt like giving him a call, but she knew that all she would get was the recorded voice of her father's answering machine.

Slowly, she took the red storybook into her hands once more, and stared at the illustration of Prince Roxas and Axel, who were sitting in a dimly-lit room at the inn. Needless to say, this story was her favourite by far — maybe because Prince Roxas was, in a way, similar to her: both of them felt as if they had been abandoned by their parents… But at least Naminé's relations hadn't been cursed into stones, so that was something to be thankful of.

She then flipped through the pages and reached an illustration of Prince Roxas and his men standing in front of a carved black door in a cave. She didn't know why, but she suddenly remembered Riku and what he did at school just now. She smiled alone. Whatever did he mean by all that, anyway?

"I think he likes you…" Naminé said to herself, and ended up blushing. She grabbed a pillow and hugged it tightly, and eventually drifted to sleep with these happy thoughts occupying her mind. Her beloved storybook fell off her hand onto the floor as she slept…

It felt as if she had merely dozed off for a few minutes, but when she opened her eyes, her room was very dark. The moon could be seen from her window.

Frowning, for Naminé had woken up by the sound of someone stepping onto something on the floor, she looked at the door.

"Mama?" she called.

No one answered.

"Mama, is that you?"

When she received no answer again, she slowly sat up. Her heart began to beat faster.

"Mama, Uncle Jecht?" she called out again. "Come on guys — this isn't funny—"

What happened afterwards was by no means funny _at all, _for she really didn't see the tall figure standing right beside her bedside table before. Naminé could barely register anything when someone pushed her roughly back onto her bed — she screamed — but then the intruder pressed a strong hand roughly on her mouth.

Naminé struggled and tried to continue screaming, but in vain. Her voice was muffled and she was growing breathless from the panic and the struggles. How could someone get in? Didn't she lock everything before? Or did she leave a window open? Well, all the windows of her house had bars — so how could someone _still _break in? Her mind raced as she thought of all this, and of how to get away.

Her mind went blank, however, when she felt something sharp being pressed against her throat. Because that object was cold, she could immediately tell that it was a knife or some sort — she struggled more vigorously and tried to scream again, but soon she found that she could not: the intruder was pressing the knife so hard against her throat, that she was sure she was going to choke — so it was only logical when she failed to interpret the words of the intruder. Naminé felt tears rolling down her face as she struggled weakly. She squeezed her eyes hut as the intruder hissed something angrily.

"Look at me!" were the first words she heard, but she kept her eyes shut tightly. The knife, she was sure, had now made a small cut on her throat. _"Look at me, damn you!"_ said the intruder again, shaking her angrily. Almost against her will, she opened her eyes.

Naminé's heart began to beat even faster, but it was not just out of fear — she was _shocked _to see a pair of very angry, yet very beautiful, blue eyes, and dared not believe that they belonged to an intruder. She soon took in the face of the intruder, and found that she did not know him at all: he was young — he looked as if he was about her age — but other than that, Naminé couldn't make out anything else.

She had stopped struggling for quite some time now, but tears were still running down her face, and she was still breathing rapidly.

"Are you the one?"

Naminé frowned. _"What?" _she mentally replied.

"Are you the White Witch?" the intruder hissed.

"_The white __**WHAT **__now??" _Her frown deepened and she tried to shake her head to signify her confusion, but the intruder's hand was pressing her mouth with so much force that she couldn't move.

"_Are you the White Witch?" _he repeated again, louder and angrier this time. Naminé was thinking fast of how to reply but a sudden sharp pain on her throat made her squeal helplessly. She cried harder when the thought of death occurred to her — was this the end of her seventeen years of short life? Was she going to be killed by a delusional intruder who had mistaken her as some sort of a magical witch?

Soon, however, she could feel that the pressure against her throat had decreased — the intruder, perhaps, had just realised something as she squealed in pain just now. Naminé opened her eyes once more, and found that the intruder's expression had changed a little: he looked…slightly _surprised _and _guilty_ at what he was doing. Only then did Naminé manage to look properly at the intruder: he had golden hair and (although it was quite hard to tell, for it was very dark at the moment) a very fair face.

"I am going to ask you one last time," said he in a low voice, "are you the White Witch?"

She also observed that the intruder was wearing a red _cloak, _and that the weapon against her throat was not a knife, but a _sword _(for she could see the hilt of the sword now). While trying to look for something to knock the intruder's head with, her eyes accidentally caught sight of her beloved storybook on the floor — the book was opened, and she could see the illusion of Prince Roxas' men in front of the black door in the cave.

Well, except that Prince Roxas, who had been in the illustration for the past thirteen years, was _not _there on the page.

"ANSWER ME!"

This sudden angry shout pulled her back to her current situation. The pressure against her throat was increasing again…

She stole a glance at the storybook again, and could immediately recall that Prince Roxas always had a red cloak in the illustrations of the book — and that he had golden hair — and blue eyes — and a powerful sword with a hilt embedded with—

Naminé quickly looked at the hilt of the sword which was pressing threateningly against her throat—

_Opals and emeralds!_

Her eyes widened as she realised _who _the intruder was. Quickly, without thinking, Naminé nodded her head. The intruder seemed to have forgotten his anger for a moment.

"You — you _are _the White Witch?" he asked. Naminé nodded again, a little bit more vigorously this time. Then suddenly, the intruder was frowning again. "How can I tell whether you're lying or not?" he demanded fiercely. She began to wave one hand, and when that caught his attention, she pointed at the storybook on the floor.

The intruder narrowed his eyes at the book. Recalling an illustration of Prince Roxas frowning in the book, Naminé was now convinced:

A prince from a storybook had broken into her house.

* * *

**A/N: **There! Hehe, I had a lot of fun writing this -- I haven't felt so much joy in writing for quite some time now. Okay, about the names of the characters in here, I really don't have any idea. The naming system is totally random (like, Riku _Aikawa? _What the heck?!). So to those of you (if anyone would still read this, of course) who have any better suggestions for the names, please, do let me know. You can also provide the names for other characters like Olette and Kairi and Selphie, if you'd please. :D Oh, and I'm sorry if Jecht seemed out of character... ^^;


	3. Chapter 3

**Once Upon a Time…**

**A/N: **Third chapter's here! Hehe. Anyway, I know that in the previous chapter, it seemed as if I was gonna follow the American high school system, but I changed my mind. I'll follow the Japanese schooling system (well, also like Malaysian schooling system) — ya know, where students stay in one class throughout the year instead of them having separate schedules. So, yeah.

* * *

—3—

Naminé's mind was racing at the moment as she watched the intruder (in her head, a voice kept saying over and over again: "Prince Roxas? Prince _Roxas? _Oh gosh, I'm delusional, I'm drunk, I'm dead, I'm — Prince Roxas? _Prince Roxas??"_) turned his attention to the book on the floor — should she jump up and run for it? In her head (besides the current thought occupying her mind) she imagined the hallway and the staircases, and where she had dumped her keys when she came back from school. Would she be able to race him to the door? Or would he be able to grab a hold of her and chop off her head?

The last thought made her flinch alone. Then one by one, plans of attack came to her head: she could see her alarm clock, and wondered if thatcould knock the intruder out if she used it against his head. She looked further down her bed and immediately saw her old guitar — wonder if _that _one could knock him unconscious…?

"Don't move!" the intruder warned — she had moved her head slightly while she tried to look for some else that was nearer to her. The sword was still hovering threateningly in front of her as the intruder cautiously bent down to examine the book.

Thinking fast, Naminé tried to begin a conversation (although she was still in a deep fear): "My — m-my lord?" she squeaked, and this had actually caught the intruder's attention almost at once, for he quickly turned his head towards her and stared with alert eyes — he narrowed those eyes at her suspiciously. "…P-prince…Roxas?"

Now, the suspicion lingering in his eyes changed into something else — he seemed convinced, though only a little. He turned his attention away from the book completely and pressed the sword firmly against her throat.

"If you know my name, you must know the name of your Master who sent me here."

She waited.

"Who sent me here?"

With a glance at the book, she slowly said, "Master — M-master Yen Sid."

She knew that was the right answer, for he seemed even more convinced now.

"Very well," he said, satisfied, but not letting his guard down at all, "if you are the White Witch, prove it."

"_How the heck am I gonna do THAT??" _a voice screamed in her head.

Naminé took a deep breath, and began shakily: "Your father, the King…was — was supposed to pay a visit to King Nomura…"

This did not satisfy him, for she saw coldness in his eyes as she said these words.

"You father and your brother turned into stone when you were away — M-Master Yen Sid…you and Axel went to see Master Yen Sid," she said quickly, remembering her favourite story. "He lives in a large tower in a small world-of-sorts — connected to the small town in which you've stayed for the night."

When he said nothing, Naminé continued quickly:

"No one knows where Master Yen Sid lives — only his allies and — and his apprentices. His _most trusted _apprentices."

For the first time ever, this _Prince Roxas _intruder lowered his sword, still eyeing her sharply.

"He told you about a door," she went on, still not daring to move a muscle, "a door that can lead to someone who can help you — the Door to the Other World."

Now, he seemed fully satisfied, for he kept away his sword and turned his attention to the book on the floor for a while. Then, looking at her again, he bowed slightly. "I'm Prince Roxas."

She nodded briskly. "Yeah, yeah — I know, I — I was…expecting you."

"Were you?"

She merely nodded again. Prince Roxas (this still sounded weird to her, really) looked at her for some time, taking in her tear-stained face and her bleeding neck. Then, as if he had realised something, he retreated a few steps back and bowed again.

"Forgive me, I — didn't mean to frighten or hurt you, milady."

"_Yeah, you've freakin done BOTH of that!" _she retorted mentally. When she didn't say anything in reply, he seemed to grow a little weary, and guilt began to show on his face. Naminé even thought she saw his face turning red a little. He approached her bed once more, and offered a gloved hand to her, which she reluctantly took. He pulled her up into a sitting position. She then watched as he bent down to take the storybook.

"Master Yen Sid told me that—"

"_This is your chance!"_

Naminé took the advantage of his current position, and kicked him with all her might — his head collided with the large wooden closet next to the bed with a loud _thud!_ She quickly opened the drawer of her beside table and took out a pepper spray—

"You! You–!"

"YOU scared me, you freak!" she screamed, and once her eyes met those beautiful angry ones of the delusional intruder's ("He must've had a copy of that storybook and fancied himself as Prince Roxas!" screamed the little voice in her head), she pressed the nozzle of the pepper spray — he shouted in pain — she took the chance to push him back onto the floor — his head hit the drawer _again_ — more angry shouts—

Quickly, Naminé grabbed her cell phone and ran out of the room; screaming "Help!" all the way without even expecting anyone to help her because — well, because she knew no one was at home. She saw her keys on the small coffee table and grabbed it, unlocked the door hurriedly — because she could hear the 'prince' stumbling down the stairs shouting angry words — and ran out of her house. As quickly as her trembling fingers could manage, she dialled her father's number — it was the first one that came to her head.

She was lucky this time, for her father had immediately picked up.

"_Hey, Nami-chan? What's—?"_

"There's an intruder in the house! Mama isn't home yet — he almost beheaded me, papa!" she said, now fumbling with the front gates, trying to unlock it.

"_An intruder?"_

"Yes, an _intruder!" _she hissed back. "Oh, come on!" she said impatiently — she couldn't seem to fit the key into the lock.

"_Nami-chan, calm down — where are you now?"_

"Calm _down? _Papa, I just used my pepper spray against him and he's angry now!" she replied desperately. "Come _on!"_

"_Where are you now?" _her father repeated urgently. _"I'm on the way there — have you called the cops?"_

"No I haven't— I'm trying to unlock the front ga—AARGH!"

"_Nami-chan? Nami-chan?!"_

The phone fell onto the ground — Naminé struggled and repetitively hit the intruder as he easily grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder.

"Lemme go, lemme go, lemme go — lemme go, you—you delusional— _lemme go!"_

When _that _didn't work — well:

"_HEEEEEEEEEEEELP! HEEEELP!"_

"Shut up!" the intruder said, clearly annoyed, as he threw her onto the sofa in the living room and slammed the front door shut.

"_HEEEEEEELP!"_

"I said SHUT UP!" he roared. Naminé could see that he still had problems opening his eyes. She quickly sat up and retreated as far as she could from him — she couldn't see any escape routes for he was blocking the main entrance of the living room. Then, drawing his sword a little bit clumsily and pointing it forward, he said, "How dare you tricked me, you witch!"

"Well, how dare you break into my private chamber? _And when I was asleep too!"_ she retorted back, observing that he really couldn't open his eyes. "And — and then you threatened to _kill _me? And you just called me a **witch**—! HEEEEEEEELP!"

Naminé had now reached one of the windows and had opened it.

"HEEEELP! SOMEONE, HELP ME! CAN YOU HEAR ME? HEEEEEEEEEEELP!" she screamed, all the while banging on the bars of the window to create more noise. It didn't take long for the intruder to follow her voice and covered her mouth from behind, pulling her away from the window. Once again, he had easily grabbed her by the waist and had already hoisted her up. Needless to say, she fought back violently, kicking her legs in the air. She bit his fingers as hard as she could and he had to uncover her mouth, shouting in pain—

"Let — me — _go!"_

"I — I've already — apologised!"

"Well — apologies — not accepted — _your highness!"_

Naminé struggled some more and finally managed to elbow him on the face — again, he shouted in pain and let her go. She fell onto the floor and quickly scrambled to her feet to hide behind the grandfather clock. The phone was near the staircases — there was no way she could reach it… Cursing inwardly as she remembered her cell phone outside, she peered carefully as the intruder rubbed his eyes again and again with one hand, all the while trying to find her with his other arm spread out in front of him.

"Where are you?" he shouted. "Come out, you witch!"

"_Call me that again, I swear I'm gonna kick your balls off after this!" _she thought angrily.

When he approached the grandfather clock, Naminé quietly moved away behind the sofa. He accidentally knocked off a vase from the table near the grandfather clock — it fell and shattered loudly on the floor. She took the chance to move and hide behind another sofa, all the while trying to plan her next moves so she could approach the door.

She watched as Roxas ("He's NOT Roxas, he's an intruder!") rubbed his eyes again, and now he was able to open them a little.

"_Uh oh, bad news!"_

She ducked behind the sofa a little too late — he had already seen her and with swift movements, he had her pinned to the floor the next moment. She tried to scream for help again, but this time, he was really being rough with her. She could barely breathe with his hand pressing firmly against her mouth and nose.

He was breathing heavily, and the areas around his eyes were red — his blue, blue eyes had tears in it, and he was frowning really angrily at her. Once again, the sword was on her neck.

Naminé flailed her arms around helplessly, for the combination of his hand on her mouth and nose, and the sword against her throat, had really choked her — _"I can't breathe!" _she kept saying again and again in her head — but Roxas really wasn't going to let her go.

"I should've killed you earlier!" he hissed dangerously, his handsome face twisting in anger. Naminé then began to see stars and her head ached from the lack of oxygen. She could feel her consciousness drifting away — her eyes began to flutter shut, but she was fighting it…

She thought she heard an explosion, but it was actually the front door bursting open—

"My damn!" came her father's voice. "Nami-chan? Oh hell—!"

Quickly, Roxas leaped to his feet, his sword ready. Naminé rolled to her side weakly, coughing again and again.

"Papa, he's — he can't see clearly…!" Naminé provided in between coughs.

"My damn — is that — _is that Prince Roxas?"_

"I see your accomplice knows me as well!" replied Roxas.

"Okay, okay!" said her father. She could see him raising his hands in the air in surrender, "J-just — just calm down, milord — calm down…!"

Naminé could see her father stealing glances at her and eyeing Roxas' sword. He grew pale when he saw the blood on her throat.

"Your tricks won't work — the witch had already—!"

"Stop calling me that!" Naminé shouted angrily as she slowly staggered to her feet.

"Naminé, stay where you are," her father said firmly. Roxas quickly whirled around and pointed his sword at her again.

"If you come nearer, I'll — I'll—" said he, "I'll kill her!"

"No, don't!"

"_Kill _me?" Naminé gave a fake mocking laughter. "I've attacked you for God knows how many times already—!"

"Why you insolent little—!"

"Okay, whoa, whoa — WHOA, HOLD IT!" Naminé's father quickly said, stepping in between them when Naminé took out her pepper spray, and Roxas held up his sword higher. Standing protectively in front of Naminé, the man bowed to Roxas. "I apologise for my daughter's actions—"

"Papa, he's a delusional criminal who broke into my room and tried to kill me with _a sword!"_ Naminé reminded him, frowning.

"I know what I'm doing," her father hissed back. "I know Master Yen Sid sent you here—"

"That won't work! The witch claims she knows Master Yen Sid too!" snarled the other.

"I know," said the man loudly, "that my daughter has been rough — believe me your highness, she did it because she doesn't know the real situation—"

"What real situation, papa?" she whispered.

"_I'll tell you later!"_ her father hissed back. "So I apologise—"

"Papa, this is nonsense!" she said urgently, tugging at her father's sleeve. "Call the cops already — _now!"_

"Silent, Naminé!"

Naminé was shocked at her father's tone of voice: he was impatient, angry even! If this was a trick to calm the intruder down, he did not need to be so angry at _her, _who had been attacked and who almost got killed.

"Did she show you a book, milord?" her father began again. Roxas eyed them both sharply.

"Yes — before she ambushed me! Coward! Coward!"

Naminé stuck her tongue out, and hid behind her father once more as Roxas brandished his sword dangerously.

"Okay, perhaps that was cowardice to you — but it's self defence to her. The world isn't as safe as it was before, my prince…it's… it's dangerous nowadays." Cautiously, Naminé's father backed away — Naminé followed — and moved to the middle part of the living room. Roxas followed too. "Please, you highness — your eyes, they need to be treated."

Roxas said nothing, and did not put down his weapon.

"My goodness, are those opals on the hilt?" Naminé heard her father whispered.

"Yes, I think so."

"Beautiful…!"

"Papa, _what are we going to do?"_

"I may be blind but I am not deaf!" Roxas said angrily as he heard the father and daughter exchanged whispers to each other. "I am going to ask you this once, sir, and only once! Is she or is she not the White Witch?"

"She is."

Roxas' head turned sharply towards Mr. Matsuda's voice as he heard this.

"_What? _No, I'm not!" Naminé said aloud.

_Now, _Roxas turned his head towards Naminé's voice — he was growing a little confused.

"He's a crazy criminal, papa, why are you playing this game?"

"I told you I'm gonna explain everything to you, Naminé!" her father said impatiently. "Go upstairs and take the book—"

"_What for?"_

"Just take it!"

Naminé eyed Roxas sharply. It looked like he knew that he was outnumbered, for he did not try to stop her from going back into her room. He just stood there quietly with his sword. It was only logical — her father was an adult and could easily be a worthy opponent. (And perhaps he now knew the power of her pepper spray!) With one last look at the intruder, Naminé turned around and run into her room, grabbed the book, and returned downstairs. She stopped at the phone and decided to call the cops — but then, her father came out of the living room along with Roxas. She froze.

"You may not want to do that, honey," said her father, slowly shaking his head.

"No, I'm very positive that I _want _to do this! What is wrong with you—?"

"The index."

"What?"

"Look at the index."

Very confused now, Naminé opened the book and looked at the index quickly. "There's nothing here, papa."

"Are you sure?"

She gave a quick glance. _"Yes!"_

"Look again," her father said solemnly, "carefully."

Naminé looked again. The index was _fine, _she memorised it like the back of her—

"Wait a minute," she said, frowning more and more.

_CONTENTS_

_The Tale of the Twelve Sacra Cousins……24_

_Don't Follow the Music! ……48_

_The White Carriage ……61_

_War of the Keys …… 75_

"Is there a missing title?" came her father's voice.

"I—"

She looked again.

"There _is _a missing title, am I right?"

Naminé looked at her father. "Yes — _The Door to the Other World _is—"

"—Gone."

Naminé stared at Roxas. He glared back, but she didn't take her eyes off of him. "Papa," she began, "isn't Prince Roxas from _The Door to the Other World_?"

Her father nodded. "Yes, he is."

The next two questions had the same meaning and directed at the same person, but spoken by two different people:

"What's going on, papa?"

"What is happening? Tell me at once!"

Mr. Matsuda looked at the two of them, and sighed quietly. "I will explain _everything_."

—X—

Naminé glared grudgingly at the lean young man sitting at the other end of the sofa. Both of them had towels pressed against different parts of their bodies: Naminé had a warm towel against her neck, and Prince Roxas had a towel that had earlier been soaked in a mixture of milk, honey, a mild detergent and a little baking soda, and was pressing it against his eyes. He was leaning against the sofa and had appeared to be tired for the past hour, but seemed to want to hide that fact.

Mr. Matsuda entered the large living room with a mild smile, his footsteps echoing as he entered. "Hey," he said, and Prince Roxas immediately took the towel off his eyes to follow each of the man's movement carefully. "How're your eyes, Sir?"

Prince Roxas narrowed his eyes a bit. "Better."

"That's good," said Mr. Matsuda cheerfully, now turning his attention to Naminé. He said down next to her. "And you, Nami-chan?"

Wordlessly, and still glaring at Prince Roxas, she lowered the towel. "It still hurts a little."

"Really? Let me see that…"

The golden haired boy looked away and ended up staring at the floor. To Naminé, guilt was displayed all over Prince Roxas' face, but at the same time, he was doing a great job at concealing it.

"Ow, ow…" Naminé said as she felt her father placing a band aid carefully on the small, but painful, wound on her throat.

All three of them were currently at Mr. Matsuda's mansion. Deciding that all this would be too much for Naminé's mother to accept, her father had proposed to explain the whole thing at his house instead. It took quite a while to get the youngsters' agreement, but in the end they gave in. Naminé was very curious about everything — and clearly "Prince" Roxas was, too. Her father had insisted Naminé to call the intruder 'Prince Roxas' — "Just to cool his anger down," according to him. So, Naminé had contacted her mother and told her that she (Naminé) had gone out for dinner with her father. When Prince Roxas broke into the house, it was merely 7.30pm.

"I deeply apologise for that wound," Prince Roxas suddenly said in a steady, quiet voice. Naminé looked, but the other was still staring at the floor. "That was really…an untoward thing for a man to do to a fair lady. Forgive me."

Mr. Matsuda gave a meaningful look at his daughter.

"What?" she mouthed.

"He just apologised to you," replied her father in a whisper. "Well?"

She made a face.

"He called you a _fair lady."_

"He calls himself a _prince!"_ she hissed back.

"Very well," said Mr. Matsuda quietly to her, and then he stood up. "Very well," he repeated, this time addressing both the youngsters. "I know both of you are deeply confused and annoyed, so I will now explain everything."

Prince Roxas sat up properly, and so did Naminé.

"Milord, my daughter Naminé knows the whole story of your journey, and what has befallen you."

Here, the so-called prince looked quickly at Naminé, who simply gave him a sour look in return.

"She knows about your brother and father's intended journey. She knows about your party heading towards Akai to solve a small war. She knows—"

"How am I to believe your words," Prince Roxas cut in coldly, "if it is _you _who keeps claiming that she knows, if it is _you _who are saying 'she knows', 'she knows'?"

A short pause occurred, and then Naminé's hatred towards the 'delusional intruder' increased once more, so she snapped, "Fine then. _I'll _do the talking. I know that you wanted so much to be greeted merrily by King Nomura. I know that you envy your father and brother for the adventure they were supposed to have. I know that you find the meals and drinks served on silver plates and golden goblets at King Nomura's castle very tempting. I know exactly _what _led you to Master Yen Sid's tower — it was an old, hot-tempered talking pillow at the inn, wasn't it?"

By now, Prince Roxas' mouth was hanging open a little.

"Its name, apparently, was _Sir _Bee," she finished in a challenging tone of voice, "wasn't it?"

"…Yes," said Prince Roxas slowly, and then he began to stare at the floor again. Somehow, he really did seem tired — and crestfallen. It looked as if he was ready to let Naminé win this argument. Perhaps reminding him of his current situation had made him this way. "Yes…you are absolutely correct."

Turning to her father, she said pleadingly, "Now, papa, could you please, _please _explain the whole situation?"

"Yes, I will," said Mr. Matsuda briskly. "As I was saying, Naminé and I know your tale, milord — we even know what _will_ happen to you, your father and brother, and your kingdom later."

"You do? Sir, are — are you also a wizard?" Prince Roxas inquired. "Are you a master in the art of seeing the future?"

Naminé nearly laughed, and was sure her father felt the same way too, for she saw him hide his face for a moment from Prince Roxas. It was merely a storybook — one that she had owned for almost thirteen years and had read for so many times before, so of _course _she was familiar with the stories!

"Well — _kind of, _your highness," said Mr. Matsuda in the end. "We cannot, however, reveal anything to you. The book that my daughter possesses contains your whole story, from the beginning to the end. Needless to say, you won't be able to touch it at all, and so it is highly impossible for you to read your own story."

"Oh. Yes, I've expected as much…"

"But we are here to help you, just like what Master Yen Sid told you before you got here. Now — I believe Master Yen Sid had told you this before: you need to rescue your father and brother and kingdom, but first you need to know your heart."

Prince Roxas merely nodded, still wearing a quizzical frown on his face.

"I heard people over there call you 'The one with the heart of stone'," Naminé's father said gently. "Is this true?"

Sighing a little, the Prince nodded wordlessly again. Only then Naminé remembered the description of the prince in the storybook: _rarely smiled, and rarely laughed, but he was not unfriendly… Poor Prince Roxas…was only a shy person…_

"_That _is the very thing that needs to be fixed," said Mr. Matsuda, and then, looking at Naminé, said, "and my daughter will help you with that."

"What?" both of the chorused together at the same time. Mr. Matsuda gave a meaningful look at Naminé that said, "I'll explain to you afterwards."

"Now — I request for a private moment with Naminé — excuse us," said Mr. Matsuda briskly before pulling Naminé to her feet and dragging her into the gallery next to the living room. Once inside, Naminé seated herself on one of the chairs and said,

"Okay, what was all that about?"

Her father put the storybook down on the table and rubbed his temples. "This is all my fault, I should've told you about it earlier. I'm so, so sorry, Nami-chan…"

"None of this is your fault," she said firmly. "No one would ever expect an intruder to break in today—"

"You _still _think he's a delusional criminal, don't you?" Mr. Matsuda cut across her.

"Well, _yes!"_

The man in his late forties now stood up and paced about a little, still massaging his temples. "You do know that my family name is carved at the back cover of the book — bottom right corner, right?"

"Yeah — but so what? It's been in your family for ages, so it's logical—"

"Actually, _because_ we're the Matsuda family, the name is there…"

"Okay — I am done asking you 'what's going on?' or 'what d'you mean?'" Naminé said at last, fed up with the whole thing. She folded her arms and waited for her father's explanation. She watched as Mr. Matsuda paced about the room some more, and then he walked towards Naminé, took her hands and sat down next to her. The book was placed on the table in front of them, and he stared at it for quite some time.

"Naminé — you once asked me, thirteen years ago, why the pages at the back are blank, am I right?" Naminé merely nodded, and watched as Mr. Matsuda took the book and flipped to the pages at the back. They were still mysteriously blank, with only the number of pages printed at the bottom of each page. "There used to be fifteen more titles in the index, d'you know that?" he finished, looking at her with an unfathomable face.

"Wh… Well — so wh… _Huh?"_ was all she could manage. Her father sighed.

"This book has been passed down from the father or the mother to all his (or her) children for more than fifty years now, and this book was written specially for our family. When the last child has…_finished_…the book, it is returned to the first child, to be passed down _his_ (or her) family. That is how the cycle goes. That is how it has been for the past fifty years or so."

A short pause occurred, and Mr. Matsuda reluctantly went on:

"I am the eldest in my family — so when your uncle, the youngest of my siblings, finally finished with this book, it's passed down to _you, _my child."

"Okay, so the book's been passed down from one to another in our family," Naminé repeated, "So _what?"_

"Each and every one of us before you had encountered the same thing, Naminé."

"And what is that? Delusional intruders breaking into their houses?"

"Well yeah — I received mine when I was in the toilet in the middle of the night," said her father as-a-matter-of-factly. Seeing Naminé's annoyed look, he quickly went on, "I'm not joking, Nami-chan! And each time we receive a character from the book, the title of the story from which the character—"

"Whoa, whoa, hold it — _receive a character from the book?"_

"Yes," he said impatiently, "as I was saying, when a character came out of the book, the title of the story from which the character came from will disappear from the index page — see, _The Door to the Other World _is gone now, because Prince Roxas had 'broken into' your room earlier this evening."

Naminé was sitting there with a face that said, "What the heck are you saying, papa??"

Her father went on: "For the past fifty years, the stories had disappeared one by one, starting from the very last story, and it climbed up the list of the index. The title will disappear first, followed by the story, page by page…"

Naminé shook her head, stood up and began to pace about the room.

"But now, the pattern's changed — the _first _story has disappeared from the index, and I think it because the first fifteen stories had disappeared from the bottom to the top, so now the next fifteen stories should disappear from the top to the bottom — Naminé, _listen _to me," he said urgently, jumping up approaching his daughter quickly. Then, holding her by the shoulder, he looked at her blue eyes sharply, he said, "When you reach a certain age, a character from this book will come to life and you'll have to help him understand the theme of his story…."

She was frowning so much that it began to hurt now. "Papa…_what are you trying to say?"_

"I'm not joking, please understand," he begged. "You'll _have _to help him _get back into the book!"_

"Or what?"

"Or your life ruined," he said solemnly. Then, lowering his voice, he said, "You're lucky you got a prince — _I _got a murderer who misused his twin's magical axe! I couldn't make him understand the theme of his story, but luckily I had siblings! I could pass the story down to my brother and _he _solved it for _me! _Why do you think your mother and I went our separate ways?"

It finally sunk into her head — her father _was _being serious…

"Look — I don't want your life ruined," he said. "I didn't finish my story… I paid dearly for it — I lost my wife, my daughter, my family — I don't want you to lose anyone, Naminé… You _have _to help Prince Roxas because — well, because you don't have siblings to help you, to pass the story down to…!"

Naminé closed her eyes for a moment, trying to digest everything. So, apparently, the delusional intruder was _not _a delusional intruder — he was a prince from a storybook… And apparently, everyone in her family had each received a character from the book — and the book was made specifically for her family, and has been passed down for almost fifty years…

"Okay — answer this though, papa," she began after a while, _"how _did the characters come to life? _Why _does our family own the book? _Who _set the rules of — of helping storybook characters get back into the book?"

Sitting down, Mr. Matsuda looked at her. Then, smiling bitterly, he said, "Do you still believe in wizards and witches, and sorcerers and warlocks, Naminé?"

"Oh gosh," was all she could manage. She realised that it was going to be a long, long night.

* * *

**A/N: **I found this site, and it says the best way to cure eyes from pepper spray is by using a mixture of milk, honey, a mild detergent and a little baking soda — apparently it will soothe the eyes and remove the chemicals a bit. :D

"My damn!" curse courtesy of Mr. John Thorpe — if you know him, good! :D

I think Hayner (one of my favourite characters!) will soon be introduced…


	4. Chapter 4

**Once Upon a Time…**

**A/N: **Fourth chapter! Whee, I am gonna attend my first ever piano class soon! (And at seventeen, too…! D: Wow, I'm old…) Plus, I had _just _discovered Xion — like, where have I been all these days??? Sheesh!

* * *

—4—

'_I pepper sprayed a prince from a storybook today…'_

Naminé stopped, and sat up. Somehow, her diary entry didn't seem to make sense — but that was exactly what had happened. Groaning quietly, she bent down again to continue writing. Her room was dark, except for the light from her study lamp — she knew her mother would disapprove this, but what the heck. _She _was already asleep, apparently very satisfied with her dinner with Jecht, and oblivious to what had occurred earlier that evening.

She ceased her writing when she reached the point of describing the intruder — Prince Roxas. She even placed her pen down…

Naminé's eyes caught sight of her cupboard and couldn't help smiling when she remembered the incident earlier that evening, where a certain prince's head had painfully collided with the cupboard. Shaking her head and still smiling, she took up her pen and began to describe the prince on the paper:

'_I couldn't see him clearly at first — just imagine how scared I was, I honestly thought I was gonna get killed. Well, this "prince" had blonde hair and blue eyes; he wore a red cloak and threatened to kill me with a sword.'_

Here, she paused again when she recalled his angry eyes once he had recovered from her first attack (the kick that had caused his head to hit the cupboard). Suddenly she found herself staring at the wall — well, staring at particularly _nothing — _while images of the prince filled her head. She remembered how serious those eyes were, even when her father announced that she, Naminé, would do everything in her power to help him solve his crisis. Prince Roxas had merely bowed, and thanked her in a very formal way.

It was soon decided that the storybook prince was to spend the night at her father's house, and that Naminé would have to come over the next day to see him again after school. She dreaded this, but what else could she do?

Naminé shut her diary and tucked it back underneath her pillow before throwing herself onto the bed. Her head ached so much from thinking about what had happened — about what her father had told her…

"_One of our forefathers was once a great writer, Nami-chan, I'm sure you know that."_

"_Yeah — you told me about it almost all the time when I was four or five."_

"_Well — to put it simple, he fell in love with the wrong girl, and so his family members got cursed."_

"_Got— excuse me?"_

"_Got _cursed, _yes, you heard me."_

"_Care to explain, then?"_

Apparently, this great writer fell in love with a woman, whom everyone said to be peculiar — some even thought she was related to a famous mysterious murder back then, just because she fit each description of the murderer. But she was soon declared innocent, and it seemed to Naminé that people back then simply could not accept it. The society almost went crazy when they found out that the Great Scholar Matsuda was seeing this woman — they made up horrible stories and Matsuda's close friends tried again and again to separate him from her.

But Matsuda didn't care — obviously he didn't. He wrote her almost thirty tales to be read to children, since she worked at an orphanage. People said that was the period where Great Scholar Matsuda was the most creative and productive, for he not only wrote children's tales, but also poems, riddles, and short novels. In each of his work, he would write a dedication: _"To my darlings", _which was dedicated to the orphans under the care of his lover.

A jealous brother of Matsuda's soon visited the town in which of the lovers lived — almost immediately, he fell in love for the woman, and had killed Great Scholar Matsuda.

"_Wow, that simple, huh?"_

"_Well…not much was known about the murder, Nami-chan. But of course, this left the woman heartbroken — and this was when her peculiarity at last became clear."_

"_Lemme guess — she's a witch, right?"_

"_Sort of, I think... The thirty stories written by Matsuda never got published: it was forever hers to cherish, but when it was taken away cruelly by the brother, she — well, she cursed the book and the brother. She was very ill at the moment too, and died not long afterwards. The brother, needless to say, faced a lot of confusion and trouble when 'The Boy Who Wouldn't Sleep' disturbed him like crazy each night... According to the grandchild of Matsuda's brother, The Boy Who Wouldn't Sleep looked so much like the Great Scholar himself — perhaps the woman wanted to brother to remember what he had done to Matsuda…"_

"_But papa — how do you _know _all this? I mean, you weren't there, what if it's all a bunch of lies or something? It doesn't seem logical to me."_

Naminé now turned to her side, and stared at an old, dark green, leather-bound book on her bed. She took it and flipped through the pages: neat writings in black ink could be seen filling each of the now-yellowish pages of the book, but she couldn't make out the words since it was so dark at the moment.

"Fancy having a witch's 90-year-old diary," she whispered to herself, and placing it on the bedside table afterwards. According to her father, the entry on Great Scholar Matsuda's death was in no way specific — the woman just wrote a couple of lines, followed by a poem. Naminé hadn't the time to check it yet, for when she got back home, her mother was being a little irritating—

"_Where have you been? I got home almost forty-five minutes ago!"_

"_Mama, I _told _you I went out with papa for dinner, remember?"_

"_Oh, I'm sorry! I thought it wouldn't take so long!"_

Even after Mr. Matsuda gave his fifth apology, Naminé's mother still gave him nasty glares and eventually slammed the door in his face.

Not only did Naminé learn her family history — or 'curse', as her father called it — she also finally found out the reason of her parent's divorce: her father's obsession with the storybook drove her mother crazy, but of course, Mr. Matsuda couldn't tell her about the murderer with the magical axe, could he? So in the end, she thought that he was not dedicated enough to be the leader of the family, and filed a divorce. That pretty much explained why her mother didn't want her to read the book back when she was four.

"Some night…huh?" Naminé said alone. The clock struck 2.15am, and she decided that she wouldn't be able to wake up on time if she stayed up longer — so she closed her eyes and, surprisingly, fell asleep shortly after.

—X—

Naminé tilted her head to the right and massaged her neck a little — it felt stiff ever since she woke up, and she suspected it must have something to do with last night's struggle with Prince Roxas. To make things worse, she could barely stay awake in her history class (and really, Naminé was one of the few in her class who did well in history, so you could imagine how disappointed it was for her when she couldn't pay attention). She made her way slowly towards her locker, all the while wearing a mild frown that said, "I didn't get enough sleep — and got attacked by a storybook prince last night…"

Someone was already waiting in front of her locker, thus when Naminé saw that person, she smiled and walked quicker.

"Selphie!" she squealed, spreading her arms.

"Hey, girl…!"

The two of them embraced each other like silly girls (because that was their trademark greeting), before letting go. Naminé unlocked her locker and Selphie began to talk:

"What's this news about you bewitching Riku Aikawa, _huuuh?"_ Selphie asked, nudging her softly on the elbow. The word 'bewitching' almost made her drop her book, for she had heard enough of the word 'witch' coming from Prince Roxas the night before. Selphie, unfortunately, interpreted that wrongly and assumed that she had caught her off guard. "Ah-hah! Were you about to drop the books and deny 100 percent about the news?"

"Selphie…you know better than anyone that I do _not _like Riku Aikawa, right?" Naminé said, shoving the books into her locker — she really forgot all about what Riku did at class the day before when last night's events took place.

"Well, why not? Because you don't like guys who have long hair—"

"—And smooth skin—"

"—Because people might get confused as to which one is the girlfriend!" they finished simultaneously, followed by laughter and giggles.

"What about _you, _then?" Naminé turned the question around. "Doesn't Irvine have long hair too?"

"Whoever said _I _dislike THAT in a man, eh?" Selphie replied, smiling widely. "Ooh — which reminds me why I am here — yesterday after school, I was updating the school's website again and I've _finally _found Irvine's student profile!"

Here, she let out a squeal.

"You should've seen him with his hair short when he first attended Enix High!"

Naminé merely shook her head and proceeded to choosing the right books from her locker. Selphie Tilmitt had been her friend ever since she entered Enix High, but they had not been in the same class for two years now. Selphie managed the school website, and had a huge privilege to spy on other students' profiles — she was also quite obsessed with Enix High's fifth hottest guy, Irvine Kinneas.

Selphie checked her watch, and pouted. "Owh! I have to go now, Nami-chan…"

"Aww, that's too bad! Reality calls, ey?"

Her friend merely smiled, and then they embraced each other once more.

"Call me whenever you can, okay?" Selphie reminded her, retreating and waving at her. "Or maybe we can just chat online — y'know, maybe we can talk about your _girlfriend…!"_ She had said the last bit of the sentence while winking — Naminé caught her hint, and instantly knew that Selphie was teasing her about Riku Aikawa.

Shaking her head, Naminé slowly turned back to her locker, saying, "I am _not _in love with that guy!" Selphie merely laughed, turned around, and skipped out of sight. After taking out the red storybook, Naminé closed the locker door and was pretty soon on her way out of the school building. Her hands expertly opened the book without her having to look at the page numbers at all, and at once she was reading _The Door to the Other World _(all this while walking back home — she almost collided with Pence, who was taking pictures for the school magazine).

"_Soon it was decided that the prince's party had to split up: one party would have to continue their journey to Akai to solve the war, and another would journey back and figure out a way to re-conquer the castle and defeat Xemnas…_

"_The young prince got ready almost at once, although Axel had advised him otherwise._

'_You are tired, Sire — you should rest up!'_

'_I am not going to risk my father and brother's life and my kingdom just because you _said _I am tired!' the prince cried. 'Now prepare you men — we shall go as soon as everything is ready.'_

"_Axel could not disobey these words, for they were orders, so he bowed, apologised, and retreated to let the prince prepare for the journey. Prince Roxas quickly packed his things, put on his red travelling cloak and fetched his sword. He was especially confident with this sword, for it was made by the most talented blacksmith in the entire kingdom: its hilt was embedded with rubies and opals, its blade was sharp, and it was light. The prince felt really comfortable using this sword, for it was as if they understood each other._

"_The prince's attention was caught by a sudden movement on the bed of the inn. He took out his sword, and scanned the room. Everything went still for a moment or two — but then, the pile of pillows on the bed began to shake— Prince Roxas was prepared to face any assassins at the moment for his anger was boiling. He lifted his sword higher, expecting someone to jump up to him — but what he saw next made him lower his sword a little…"_

HONK! HONK!

"HEY! Watch where you're going, lady!"

Startled, Naminé looked up in time to avoid a white car zooming by. Well -- a huge, cool-looking type of car that was only affordable to those who were bloody rich (she wasn't that good in memorising the names of the cars, so yeah). Frowning, for she was walking on the _sidewalk, _therefore it was the diver who should watch where he was going, she shouted back, "You shouldn't be speeding in front of a school!"

"Whatever…!" the guy managed to shot back, flailing one arm without looking back at her, and disappeared as the car took a right junction.

"Jerk," she muttered darkly, turning around to continue her journey home.

"But he's right, ya know — you should _really _watch your step," came a voice out of the blue, making her jump a little. Sora's huge grin was the first thing she saw. He was, as usual, with Riku and Kairi.

"Here, you dropped this," Kairi said, smiling as she handed Naminé one of her drawings of Prince Roxas.

"Thanks," she said, smiling back. Kairi was really quite well-known throughout the school, and Naminé didn't know what kind of person she was. But, judging by her good grades and clean discipline record, Naminé assumed she was OK.

She saw Riku opening his mouth to say something, so she quickly said, "I have to go now — thanks again!"

Without waiting for any replies, she walked past them and broke into a small run.

—X—

Naminé jogged a bit when she finally reached the junction near her father's house. It wasn't that far away from her house, but walking indeed was the slowest method to go there — it could take up to half an hour, but if you're slow, it may take forty-five to fifty minutes. She quickened her pace as she reached the gates. She could see her father talking to someone by the fence — and when she saw who it was, Naminé automatically tried to turn back. She had half a though to wait by the lamp post until her father finished, but she had retreated a bit too late: the person her father was talking to had already seen her, and thus greeted her:

"Naminé! Hey, hey Naminé!"

"Ohhh…great," she mumbled alone before swiftly turning back and walking into her father's gardens. "Oh hey Olette didn't see you there," she said flatly in one breath, smiling at the dark haired girl.

"Ah, Naminé, you're here!" her father said, pulling her into a quick hug. "I was just telling Olette about my upcoming exhibition."

"What upcoming exhibition?" Naminé asked briskly.

"Well, the one in — why, didn't I already—? Oh, I must've forgotten…"

"That's quite all right, I'm sure," Olette said rather rudely — whoever gave her the rights to say 'it's quite all right' when it actually involved Naminé's feelings, and not hers? "I am looking forward to seeing the pictures in your blog when it's all over, Mr. Matsuda — I simply _adore _your paintings and artworks!"

"Umm, papa?"

"Oh, come now, child, none of that, none of that…!"

"Since I can't draw anything at all, I really quite envy those who can — you _do _know that I have a deep passion for arts, Mr. Matsuda."

"Papa, where's—?"

"That's all right, Olette — I mean, you can still play the piano and the violin — not to mention the harp, too! Oh, the harp, now _that's _something… The last time I heard you play was two years ago, am I right?"

"Yeah, I think so, sir."

"Now, now! I must attend any other occasions that will be held at your mansion soon, I want to see how much you've improved—"

Rolling her eyes, Naminé tugged her father's sleeve and said loudly, "Papa!"

"Oh — oh yes, yes, Naminé?"

She gave him a meaningful look. "Where's…? You know," she said through clenched teeth, lifting up the red storybook for her father to see.

"Ah! In the guest room upstairs," he said shortly before turning to Olette once more. Naminé rolled her eyes when Mr. Matsuda completely ignored her, so she decided not to waste any more time, and entered the mansion alone. She dumped her bag on a chair near the staircases and went upstairs, taking the staircases two by two. She walked down the hallway, and smiled when she saw a door with _Naminé _written in front of it — she was glad no one took it off her bedroom door, even after years of not sleeping in it. She proceeded further down the hallway and took a left turn. Stopping in front of a door, she knocked and opened it without waiting for any answers.

"Hey, you in there?"

Indeed, the storybook prince was in there, sitting on the bed — but the first thing she noticed was that he wasn't in his original clothes like last night. His red cloak hung at the chair, and his sword was placed on the table near the chair. The prince himself already had a pair of jeans on, and was wearing a plain white singlet — Naminé could see that he had a well-built body (she especially noticed his arms), and only then it struck her that princes, of course, must have been taught about how to defend themselves, and therefore had attended self-defence classes.

At that moment, Prince Roxas was examining a black article of clothing, looking unsure of how to put it on. Upon seeing Naminé, he quickly let go of the black shirt and pulled the blankets to cover his upper body, growing pink on the face a little. Naminé had to cover her mouth as she snorted, and started to close the door once more, saying, "I'm so sorry to intrude like this — take your time—!"

She burst into laughter once the door was shut. What Prince Roxas did was _totally _what a girl would've done! Perhaps it felt odd for him to wear a singlet like that — but what the heck! That was _so _funny! Naminé laughed her heart out silently while looking out the window at the other end of the hallway. She had tears in her eyes when she returned to the door, preparing to knock once more and this time, she was determined to wait for an answer.

She raised a knuckle to knock, but paused as she recalled how Prince Roxas looked in a pair of jeans and a plain white singlet. No doubt he had very handsome features, but she had always thought him a bit odd because he dressed up in such old-fashioned clothes before — she did not expect him to look like a very normal high school heart throb in normal modern-day clothes…

The door in front of her opened abruptly and Naminé stood face to face with the prince. He retreated a few steps back, and so did she.

"Oh, you're done," she said casually, trying to keep her cool.

"Yes, I…I guess so," said the prince, still examining the clothes he was now wearing. Naminé had to really praise him, for he looked absolutely — well, absolutely normal. _No one, _not even her father, would expect this guy to come from a storybook. "Did I — did I get everything correct?"

It took quite some time for Naminé to register what he was saying, for all the while; she was examining, with her mouth half opened, the prince's figure. He had now worn a black hood jacket over the singlet. She was even more impressed that he managed to tie his shoelaces up nicely.

"Uh…yes! Yes, you got everything right — except, perhaps," she said upon seeing the jacket unzipped, so she leaned forth, took the ends of the zipper and fastened it before pulling the puller up until it reached his chest. "There — better, I think."

Prince Roxas gave a small bow and voiced his appreciation.

"C'mon, let's meet up with my papa," Naminé said, tearing her eyes off the prince quickly and leading the way. "Umm, have you eaten yet?" she asked, and after a thought, added, "Milord?"

"Yes, your kind father was very thoughtful — yes, I have eaten, thank you."

"_O…kaaay, freakishly formal — quite the opposite of what I expected…"_ she thought. She had expected the prince to scowl and frown at her due to last night's event, but so far, he had been very, very polite and quiet. _"Well, he is the one with a heart of stone, after all."_ She shrugged alone after this thought, and they both proceeded quietly. Once downstairs, she asked him to sit and wait while she checked on her father: apparently he was still chatting with Olette. Rolling her eyes, she went back into the large living room, where Prince Roxas was examining one of her father's illustrations.

"You like that one?" she asked, gaining the prince's attention. Naminé smiled at the drawing of a mermaid with purple fins beckoning at those who examined the illustration. "He was inspired by my purple pet fish, Fllaga — I got it when I was seven, it died when I was twelve. So he drew that for me."

"I see," was all that he said in reply. They stood in front of the painting for a moment in silence. _Awkward _silence. "I've seen mermaids once," Prince Roxas suddenly said, "but that was a long time ago — when I was sailing with my uncle."

_Sailing with his uncle? _That was never in the book. Now she wondered if the characters always had histories of themselves, or memories — those that never got written in the book…

"Honestly speaking, I dunno your uncle, despite the fact that you think I know everything about you," she said. She saw him gave her a sideways glance, but then he turned his attention once more to the painting. "Hey, you wanna sit down?" Naminé asked quickly.

"I-I'd love to," he answered hesitantly, so she led the way to the long sofa and the both sat down.

She pushed several strands of blonde hair behind her ear.

He played around with the sleeve of his new jacket.

She tapped her foot.

He scratched his cheek

…

Mr. Matsuda was laughing about something outside — Naminé turned her head towards the window in the hopes of catching a glimpse of them, but she couldn't see anything. Mumbling curses, she looked away — and she accidentally caught Prince Roxas' eyes. The areas around them were still a little red from last night's pepper spray incident. She smiled a small smile without meaning to.

"Milord? Uh — sorry about the—" Naminé made a gesture around her own eyes before pointing at his. "The, you know…"

"Oh, no, no…it's… You're forgiven," he answered, nodding slightly. And then, looking at her neck, he pointed at his own. "I equally apologise for _that."_

"You already did — more than once, I believe," she said. "Then I — guess I should…apologise for not accepting your earlier apologies. I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"…Thanks."

They were both saved from any further awkward moments when Mr. Matsuda marched into the room, completely dressed up to go to work.

"Wow, that looks good on you, my prince!" he praised as he saw Prince Roxas. "I thought you were some kid Nami-chan brought back from school or something—"

"Papa, I wouldn't do anything like _that,"_ Naminé cut in, feeling as if her father was giving a bad impression of her to the prince. "Okay now — we're gonna discuss about how to help Prince Roxas, right?" she quickly asked, remembering the conversation with her father last night. According to him, once they figure out the theme of _The Door to the Other World,_ they could help turn Prince Roxas' heart of stone into a _real _heart — so that he could feel, and so that he could help his father and brother…

"About that — come here a sec, Naminé," Mr. Matsuda said, taking her by the arm and dragging her to one corner quite far away from the prince. He then took out a piece of paper and handed it to Naminé. "I've came out with a list of themes for the story _The Door to the Other World," _he said in a low voice while trying to put on his tie. "It generally takes quite a long time for us Matsudas to figure out the right theme — the right theme that causes the conflict in the characters, the _reason _why the characters cannot proceed with their stories…"

Naminé read the list her father had made while listening to his explanation:

_Courage — prince needs courage to defeat Xemnas_

_Love — prince needs to question himself whether he loves his family enough to rescue them, since he's not the fave son_

_Trust — prince needs to trust his men, because he has never before been with these men and hasn't learnt how to trust them_

_Hope — prince is the kingdom's only hope_

"Well, I think Prince Roxas is courageous enough in the story," Naminé replied in an equally low voice, handing the list back to Mr. Matsuda and taking over the task of tying his neck tie, "I've always thought so, since he never hesitated about travelling south and stopping that small war, when in fact he's never even been in a battle before—"

"Hmm, that's true," said Mr. Matsuda, now checking his watch.

"Are you in a hurry?" Naminé asked suspiciously.

"Actually, yes — meeting about the exhibition — last minute—"

"What!" she said aloud. "But — but you told me you're gonna _help _me today, papa!"

"I am, I am!" said Mr. Matsuda quickly, holding her by the shoulders. "I am, that's why I made you this list—"

"Well, I expected much _more _than that from you since all this came from _your _side of the family!" she hissed back.

"Look, I'll make this up to you later — I'll call tonight and perhaps all three of us can talk things through over dinner — but I have to go, _now—"_

Her father planted a kiss on her forehead and dashed away to take his things before bowing to the prince, who had been observing the scene quietly. "I am so sorry, Sire but I have business to attend to — besides, it is not me who could help you, it's Naminé—"

Naminé quickly followed her father, saying in an angry voice, "I thought both of us are going to help him!"

"Nami-chan, things don't work that way — you can pass it down to someone _younger _than you, not older — I'm sorry — but I will help you—"

"You weren't in such a hurry when you chatted with Olette just now," Naminé said sharply, refusing to tail her father anymore to signify her unsatisfactory towards her father's behaviour.

"Honey — that was just a five-minute chat," replied Mr. Matsuda, grabbing his car keys. "I'll call you later, all right?" Then, with a nod at the prince, "Milord—" he was gone.

Silence.

"I can't believe that man!" Naminé said loudly, flailing her arms. She stomped back to the sofa and sat down, still frowning a great deal as she glared at the list in her hands. How on earth was she supposed to begin? She didn't even _know _about this whole story-book-character-coming-to-life thing before! How was it fair for her father to completely ignore her like this? "One minute he was apologising about the whole 'not-telling-me-earlier' crap and the next — _'Oh, I'm sorry, Naminé — forgive me, Nami-chan!' — _well, forgive you, my foot!—and the next thing ya know, he's leaving you like nothing's happened!" She continued to mumble under her breath until she felt a light tap on her shoulder.

"Forgive me, White Witch, but—"

"Don't!" she began loudly, but upon seeing how polite Prince Roxas had started his sentence, she tried to cool down, and only spoke when she thought she had achieved a little of that. _"Don't _call me that…!"

The prince looked offended. "Why ever not? You _are _the White Witch, are you not?"

"Yes, I am, but — just don't call me that, because…well, because people don't know I'm the White Witch," she lied quickly and without difficulty. It _was _the truth, anyway! "It's dangerous to be addressing me like that all day — just call me by my name: Naminé."

"Nam—ee—nay."

"Okay, that's good enough," she said, fairly satisfied with the prince's pronunciation of her name.

"I see. Milady Naminé," the prince said as if practising to say this new name of his acquaintance. The sound of 'Milady Naminé' _did _flatter her, so she purposely looked away.

"Umm, yes — listen, before we begin, I think you'll need to learn a few things about how the world works here," she said carelessly as if speaking to a fellow schoolmate. Prince Roxas did seem offended by this slightly disrespectful speech. "Your Highness," she added in the end before smiling a plastic smile at him. He looked at her sourly, but seemed to have forgiven her.

"Right — okay," Naminé said, rummaging her bag for a while. "Ah-hah! Now, this is called a cell phone, milord," she said, pulling out her second phone and handing it over to the prince, who — although previously seemed as if he was about to disagree with the whole introduction-to-some-stuff thing — examined it with great fascination. "It's one of the commonest devices used for communication here, since — well, since the art of mind reading and teleporting have both disappeared from the society," she lied quickly, but Prince Roxas didn't seem to be listening: he was still examining the cell phone.

Naminé smiled, and edged closer to the Prince. "Here' I'll show you how it works," she said, taking out her other phone. They were of different models (though both were slide phones), but all phones basically worked the same way, right? _(Take out your phones, everyone! It's Modern Knowledge class with Naminé! XD)_ "You can slide this part upwards—" She slid her phone, and Prince Roxas raised his eyebrows in fascination. "Here, try it on yours—"

He slid the phone in his hand using his thumb — and smiled as the screen came to life. Naminé couldn't help smiling herself at this reaction of his.

"Now, the — uh, the spelling may be a bit different from the one you're used to, milord, but I think you'll get the hang of it soon. Anyway, this glowing area is called the screen."

"The — _screen…"_

"Yep, the screen. It displays things — like, like the contents page of a book; it allows you to choose what to do — now, oops! Yes, the keypad will lock itself down if you don't do anything—"

This explaining session actually continued without much difficulty, and Naminé was surprised too: each time she explained something, the Prince would listen in silence, and repeated whatever she did. Pretty soon he got the basic concept of the menu, the messaging system, the contact book system, and even a bit of the ringtone. She was, needless to say, _very _impressed with Prince Roxas.

"Now I'm gonna try to make a call to your phone," she said once she finished explaining how to call someone using the phone. "I'm gonna be in the gallery — the next room," she said, standing up, "but you'll hear my voice. When the phone rings, you press—"

"The green one—"

"Yeah, the green button," she said, nodding and smiling. _"This guy's really clever!" _she thought. "And then put the phone to your ear — like this."

He looked slightly sceptical about putting the phone to his ear (probably it looked stupid to him), but he tried it anyway. She laughed and nodded.

"Yes, like that — now wait for my call," she said, running into the gallery. Once inside, she dialled her other phone's number and heard the faint ringtone in the next room. She waited and after the fourth dial or so, the prince picked up. "Hello, Prince Roxas?" she said casually. There was a short silence where she suspected the prince to stare at the phone in awe before placing it back to his ear.

"…Milady Naminé?"

She laughed. "Yes, it's me!" she said, standing at the door of the gallery so he could see her. Prince Roxas looked at her, and smiled an amazed smile. "Can you hear me like I'm right next to you?"

"Yes, indeed!"

She laughed again and approached the sofa once more. "That's the function of a cell phone," she concluded at the awestruck prince. "Now, to end the call, press the red button."

Prince Roxas followed her instruction, and afterwards proceeded to examining the phone. "And…you can use this to communicate with people…even if they are in the gallery room or — or farther away?"

"Exactly," she said, nodding. "You can do that even if someone is abroad, you know? But of course, like all the other services, it requires payment."

The prince seemed generally surprised at this. "Of course… I didn't think of _that…"_

"And now, I am going to demonstrate to you," said Naminé, taking out her phone and dialling a certain number quickly, "how efficient the cell phone is in delivering your anger towards someone who is kilometres away."

She waited, and so did the prince, who was obviously a little puzzled.

"_Hey, Nami-chan—?"_

"Exactly _where the heck _is the prince supposed to sleep for the night, huh, papa? I can't bring him home when it gets dark, you know I can't! And you know it yourself that your meeting isn't going to end until midnight!"

Such was the prince's first encounter with a phone.

"I just thought I'd teach you about the phone so it'd be easier," Naminé said once the angry phone call was over. "Now, on to the real thing," she said, lifting the list of themes and showing it to him. His expression changed — it was as if he had just remembered his real purpose of tapping the White Witch's shoulder earlier. "Don't worry; I'll try to figure out what's up with you, my prince — but, you starving? I know I am — c'mon, we'll discuss at my fave pizza parlour or something."

* * *

**A/N: **D: "You should really watch your step" and "Here, you dropped this"??! That was the dullest introduction to the main characters of Kingdom Hearts, Sora and Kairi, EVER! What the heck was I thinking?!

Oh well…! :D

(Yes, I am aware that I didn't describe the white car that well -- I suck at recognising cars... D:)

That thing about the shoelace comment — yeah, I did a research bout _that._ Apparently **Ötzi the Iceman** who lived around 53 centuries ago had a pair of complicated footwear, including shoelaces. Cool eh? XD I thought I wanted to make Prince Roxas all confused about the shoelaces, but it appeared that even Ötzi knew how to tie 'em up. Heheh.

One more thing: I forgot that Selphie already had a last name. Heheh. Thanks to those who gave suggestions for the last names!


	5. Chapter 5

**Once Upon a Time…**

**A/N: **I always have the habit of announcing what chapter this is in the author's note… A habit I picked up while writing _Coincidence or Destiny?_ And no, I am not implying that my readers don't know what the current chapter is, but it's just me — I love doing it. :D So…FIFTH CHAPTER! :D

I also received reviews asking about Sora and Roxas. Since Sora is from the reality world (the result for the poll says so…), obviously he isn't Roxas' brother in the storybook. Notice that I've never given Roxas' brother a name. I hope you people check your emails often too, cuz sometimes I'll give a review reply and you won't know unless you check your emails… ;D

* * *

—5—

It took quite some time to convince Prince Roxas that he didn't need his sword, and some more time to convince him further that there weren't any dark assassins lurking in the pizza parlour they were about to go to. Reluctantly, he dropped the matter and tailed her outside. She locked the doors and proceeded.

"You're heading out?"

Naminé stopped for a moment and looked around to figure out who had said that. It turned out to be Olette, who was still in her gardens watering some flowers.

"Umm, yeah," Naminé replied with a smile. "But don't worry, Luxord is here, and so are some of the maids, they'll take care of the house — I gotta go—"

"Hey, who's that?" Olette asked cheerfully, looking at Prince Roxas (whose expression remained as serious as ever).

"Oh, this?" she asked, pointing. "This is—" then, turning her back on Olette, she whispered quickly to the prince, "—she's a commoner, by the way—"

"Ah — I see…!"

"—Roxas," she said, turning back to face Olette, still smiling. "Roxas, this is Olette." As usual, the prince merely gave a bow and said nothing.

"Roxas huh? I've never seen you here before," said the green eyed girl, approaching the fence that divided the two mansions. "You new here?"

"Yeah, he's my papa's…" she paused. _"My papa's __**what??"**_said a voice in her head. "…Guest," she finished. Olette's smile grew bigger and she looked at the prince with a friendly smile and a pair of shining eyes.

"Oh, so this is your papa's—?"

This time, Naminé didn't need to come up with any excuses, for it was the prince who spoke up: "Forgive us, but we have to go. Excuse us." With a quick bow, and still a serious face, he led the way towards the main gates of the mansion.

"Sorry," Naminé said, "he's quite impatient about the tour — see you again!" And so she quickly made her way towards Prince Roxas, who was waiting for her at the gates. When she reached him, he quickly walked off with her. "What's _that _about?" she asked in a low voice, quickening her pace to match the prince's.

"I will not tolerate commoners getting in my way of rescuing my family and kingdom," he mumbled.

"Okay — I see— whoa, slow down, we're going _this _way," she said, dragging Prince Roxas by the arm towards a left junction. "Well, you do know that you will meet so many other commoners here, who would be getting in your way—"

He looked at her sharply. "Why would they do that? Do you know a lot of traitors here?"

Naminé stopped herself from rolling her eyes. _"No, _that's not it milord — they would get in your way unintentionally because none of them know who you are or why you're here — they'd think you're just my friend or something…"

The prince said nothing, but she knew he understood. "So I have to behave like a commoner myself?"

"Yes, I think so, milord — you'll need to get used to the things here. Besides, it'll take quite some time for me to help you out—"

"I _beg your pardon?" _he said, stopping. "It'll take 'quite some time' to help me? I _don't have _time! You'll need to help me as soon as you can, White Witch—"

"Shhh!" Naminé said desperately, taking him by the hand and pulling him under a tree. She looked around — Mrs. Tizzy, who was sitting in her gardens with her cat, was looking at them suspiciously. "I told you, _please _don't call me that — and we can't talk here."

"Yes, but—"

"—I will explain, we _will _talk about this, about you, and about your family and kingdom — just — not _here, _okay?"

Mrs. Tizzy was still looking, apparently much more curious than before now that she had seen Naminé whispering desperately to the prince (who, to her eyes, was an unknown, sour-looking boy who had the potential to be from Naminé's new secret boyfriend to a cruel criminal who had threatened to kill Naminé if she didn't bring him to the nearest bank). Naminé gave a quick smile to Mrs. Tizzy, and proceeded down the sidewalk, dragging Prince Roxas along.

"Please," she said, "this is a different world. They don't know you and you don't know _them…_ Just — be patient, can you do that?"

The prince nodded a small nod. "Forgive my impatience…Naminé."

"Better, much better," she said, stealing a glance at Mrs. Tizzy. She was still trying to look, but the two of them were too far off at the moment. They quickly proceeded down the sidewalk, ignoring Mrs. Tizzy all the way.

She might appear as if she had a plan of how to help the prince — _that _had managed to somehow convinced the prince — but deep inside, her mind was racing. What on earth should she do to help this guy, anyway? She had better think fast — and she was going to make sure her father's going to help her with this, no matter what.

"Okay, here we are," she said, pushing the door of the pizza parlour and gesturing the prince to enter. For some reason, he blushed and did not enter. "What?"

"…I should be opening the door for you, not the other way around."

"Oh, I see," she said, almost laughing. "Don't worry bout that, milord — just get in, c'mon I'm starving."

Still quite red on the face, he obliged and she followed from behind. She chose a seat nearest to the door and farthest from the payment counter where most school students love to hang out (because there was a television there, and so that they could order up new drinks in a flash). Naminé said thanks when a waitress (actually the pizza parlour's owner's daughter) gave them the menu — but Prince Roxas eyed the waitress sharply for a while before turning his attention to the menu.

"What would you like to have?" Naminé asked. "Start with the drinks first — I'd like a glass of apple juice, please."

"Apple juice, got that," said the waitress. She then looked at the prince, and smiled. "I've never seen _you _here before — and fancy that, Naminé Nakamura is the one bringing you here. This is new, very new."

Naminé laughed nervously, leaned in and whispered, "Can I just address you as Roxas?"

He nodded. She nodded. A mutual agreement was achieved. They sat back properly.

"Umm, this is Roxas, by the way," she introduced. The waitress nodded and smiled. "So! What would you like to have, Roxas? Paopu fruit juice isn't that bad."

"Err…I'll take your word on that, then."

"Okay, so one glass of apple juice and one glass of paopu fruit juice," the waitress repeated.

"And we'll have this _Cheese Lovers _pizza, medium, please."

"Okie-dokie!" she said. "I'll be back with your meal soon."

Naminé watched as the waitress went away, and then turned to Prince Roxas. "You do eat cheese, right?"

"Yes, I do."

"Okay, good," she said, now taking out her red storybook and the list of themes from her bag. "I _really _need to come up with a fake profile for you — people keep asking who you are and stuff. I should've thought of it sooner…how stupid of me…"

"You told the commoner just now that I am your father's guest," said Prince Roxas, "so why not tell the rest the same thing?"

"Good thinking," she said, opening the storybook and flipping the pages to _The Door to the Other World. _She was about to say something, when she noticed a change on the first page of the story: some of the first words of the first paragraph were already gone. It kind of made her feel sad to imagine her favourite story disappearing mysteriously like that.

"Oh…" Naminé said in a low voice.

"What is it?" he asked.

"…Nothing," she said quickly. In her head, she reminded herself to type out the story in her laptop once she got back home. "So first thing's first — what d'you know about Xemnas' men and stuff? Has he conquered the whole kingdom?"

"No, he hasn't — the knight told us he hasn't…"

Yes, that was in the book. Before the knight died, he told everything he knew — and Naminé was aware than Prince Roxas never had the chance to go back to the castle, for Sir Bee, the pillow, asked him not to. His party had left the inn for Master Yen Sid's tower almost immediately after finding Sir Bee.

"Well…then, what are your plans?" she went on.

"Before meeting Master Yen Sid, Axel — I trust you know him?"

"Yeah, go on."

"Axel suggested that we go further south and ask for help from our friend, King Mickey. He has a strong army and he himself is a student of Master Yen Sid — he knows how to use both the sword and magic."

"Why didn't you just go there, then?" Naminé asked, astonished at how he could let go such bright a chance of retrieving his kingdom just like that. In the book, it only stated that Prince Roxas wanted to seek help from this friend of his, King Mickey, but 'never had the chance to do so' and ended up meeting the White Witch.

"Because I want _your _help," said he desperately. "I was against Master Yen Sid's suggestion of seeking you at first, but he said that meeting you is far better than meeting King Mickey…he said…that you'll help me end Xemnas' evil plans, and help me become…"

"Become what?" she urged.

"…A better son — a better brother, a better prince… And what's more, a better _person."_

Naminé was staring at him incredulously. _"Me? Turn someone into a better person? I could hardly get my mother's attention when Jecht arrives — or my father's when Olette pops up!"_

"So please, milady — _please, _I beg you," he said, looking at her with a pair of desperate, worried eyes, "guide me through all this…please."

Prince Roxas took her hands, and gave it a light squeeze. His hands were warm and big — bigger than hers — and her small, pale hands rested snugly in his. By now, she began to feel some of Prince Roxas' wretchedness. His father and brother, the castle he grew up in, his people…all at stake — and even though a voice kept saying it's impossible to turn a _storybook prince _into more than a storybook prince, Naminé knew she had to do it. Her uncles and aunts did it — his forefathers did it. Some of them might be lucky to be able to pass down the task to someone younger, but not her, unfortunately. She had no other options…

"One glass of apple juice, one glass o—whoa, whoa! O…kay, sorry to burst your bubble!" said the waitress, quickly turning around and pretending to shield her eyes from the scene. Quickly, Naminé pulled back her hands away while Prince Roxas eyed the waitress sharply. "Really, I've been workin' here for eight years — I shoulda known that all you young people always get a lovah sometime in high school," she said good-naturedly, slowly peeking and turning around once more to put down their beverages. With a meaningful look at Naminé, she said, "I underestimated you, Naminé — I thought you were never going to bring a guy here."

"Wow, I'm that bad, huh?" she said, taking her glass of apple juice.

"Nnn, not really," she replied lazily. "You are a sweet girl — and very pretty, too," she said, winking, as she placed their pizza in the middle of the table. "Well," she took one last look at the prince, still smiling, "enjoy your meal, kiddos."

"Thanks," Naminé mumbled quietly. She gave a nervous smile at the storybook character, and pushed his glass of paopu fruit juice closer to his side. "Have a taste, milord."

Silently, he eyed the glass, and the drinking straw, before looking at her again. She didn't notice this, for she was drinking her apple juice at the moment. When she looked up, she realised that he was still staring at her, so she stared back.

"What?"

Prince Roxas reluctantly held the drinking straw with one hand, and placed his mouth at the end of it, clearly copying what Naminé just did. Only then she understood: he did not know how to use a drinking straw to drink — so she was quite amazed when Prince Roxas managed to get a taste of his paopu fruit juice using a drinking straw. Slowly, a smile appeared on Naminé's face. She let a couple of moments pass, and watched as Prince Roxas drank and drank from his glass.

"So, how do you like it?"

He took several last gulps. "I like it very much." He continued drinking for a while. "This is — paopu?"

She nodded. "Yep."

He gave a small "Ah" before continuing to drink it — but this time he was quite unfortunate: Naminé, who was previously smiling at his behaviour, caught sight of someone approaching the pizza parlour from the outside. She started, waved her hands in a panicky way, and squeaked, "Ohmigosh—!" The prince, startled by this sudden action, chocked on his fruit juice and began to cough.

"M-milord — quick! Switch places with me, _please!"_

"Wh—_what—?"_

"Please!"

He was about to look at the entrance door behind him, but stopped when Naminé suddenly got off her seat and moved beneath the table.

"What are you _doing?"_

"Switching places without being noticed!" she said from beneath the table, and soon resurfaced next to the prince. "Now — go! Sit _there!"_

The prince quickly got off his seat and walked over to the one opposite it, and sat down, frowning a confused frown. Naminé risked a glance at the entrance — but sank down her chair immediately after.

"Are…are those people coming in?" she whispered.

"The…silver haired young man?"

Naminé nodded briskly.

"Yes, he is. Him and his…friend." By now, even the prince was frowning a little (well — his expression was always a serious one, but he did frown — a deeper frown, I guess). Naminé heard the sound of the bell ringing lightly as someone opened the door and entered, and then, familiar voices filled the parlour.

"—I'll totally beat you at it tonight, just wait and see!"

Someone sighed. "Is that all that matters to you, Sora? Achieving high scores in _Chuzzles?"_

"Hey, I finished my homework for today, FYI!" replied the other. "Plus, I got highest in history this time, I even beat Naminé — you barely scored a B! Take _that, _Riku!"

"Whatever…"

Naminé held her breath when the voices grew louder — she closed her eyes — but afterwards, the voices simply grew fainter as Riku and Sora made their way at the tables in front. She sighed. _"I'm spared…"_

"Is that young man…unpleasant to you, in a way, Naminé?" the prince asked after a while, turning around in his seat to look at those two.

"Yeah — he has the Dark Arts element known as testosterone!" she hissed. But the prince wasn't listening.

"…And that other young man…"

"You mean Sora?"

Prince Roxas turned to face her. "His name is Sora?"

"Well — yeah, why?"

He looked back at those two. "He…reminds me strongly of my brother…"

Naminé sat up straighter and carefully looked at those two sitting at the front: of course… Why hadn't she noticed it before? Prince Roxas _did _look a bit like Sora…

"They go to the same school with me," she explained, now slicing two pieces of pizza for herself and the prince. She took a large bite out of her piece, and sighed gloomily.

"And…they make you uneasy?"

"No," she said. "Well — not the two of them, just — just Riku… But — he's not an evil person; he's just — just…"

Discovering that she could not point out _why _she disliked Riku, Naminé fell quiet and simply took another huge bite out of her pizza, and proceeded to munch thoughtfully in silence, leaning against her chair in a way that was bad for her backbone. Her attention was directed away from Riku Aikawa and how he had flattered her so much at school when she noticed the prince taking another slice of pizza all by himself.

"I was very ignorant of your problems before," he said, unaware that she was observing every move he made. He carefully sliced the pizza and put it in his place before saying, "I didn't think someone as powerful as you would have problems of the heart involving a very fine young man." Here, he actually looked up with this mischievous glint in his eyes and a small smile playing on his face before returning to his pizza. Naminé now looked at him with a face that said, "You did _NOT _just tease me about Riku Aikawa!"

"And this is — pizza?" Prince Roxas asked, almost in an innocent way a child would have asked, before taking a sip from his glass.

Naminé's face twisted. "Urgh — don't change the topic like that! And for the record, I _do not _have problems of the heart that involve Riku Aikawa!" She fumed about this for a while, and continued to finish her piece of pizza before grabbing another one and taking large bites out of it. While all this took place, she also realised that Prince Roxas kept turning around in his seat to have a look at Sora. Then presently, he spoke:

"Do you think…while I'm here, Xemnas has already begun conquering my father's lands?"

She put down her pizza, swallowed with much difficulty and said, "No, no! Milord, I totally forgot to tell you this—" She automatically turned to her side to take her bag, but noticed that it was next to the prince since they had switched placed earlier. "Oh, could you please?" she asked, pointing at her bag.

"Of course," he said. He paused when he saw the storybook, and hesitantly drew his hand closer to take it out of the bag. He was extending his arm across the table to give it to her when the book glowed — brighter and brighter with a dangerous shade—

"Argh…!" the prince hissed in pain, letting go of the book. Naminé quickly caught it in her hands.

"Oh freak—! Are — are you all right?" she asked, panicked. Prince Roxas has cradling his injured hand, which seemed as if it had been burnt. "What just happened?"

"I — no idea—"

Abandoning the book, Naminé stood and leant across the table a bit to examine the prince's hand. She really didn't know how bad it was though, once she saw it.

"It is but a small burn," said the prince. "Don't fret," he added calmly, though his face still displayed pain.

"Umm, okay — let's just head back," Naminé said, still worried. Could a storybook prince be admitted to a hospital?? Would they ask things like medical records and such? "Excuse me," she said, raising a hand as a waiter approached their table. "Could you perhaps pack this up for us, please? Thanks…" As the waiter took away the remaining pizza, Prince Roxas quickly finished his paopu fruit juice, and Naminé did the same to her beverage. "C'mon — I'm gonna pay for the meal and you can put your hand under the running tap."

So they stood up and walked to the front part of the parlour.

"There, the tap's over there," Naminé said, directing the prince to the far left corner of the parlour and watched him go before approaching the payment counter. She was slightly surprised to see that Kairi was the one guarding the counter. "Hey," she greeted.

"Oh, hey Naminé!" said the red haired girl cheerfully.

"I thought you work in the bookstore?"

"Yeah, I did. But it's going to be closed for three weeks, so here I am."

"I see."

Naminé waited as Kairi did some calculations and took out her money as the latter announced that the sum was eight munny and twenty cents.

"Hey," Kairi said, leaning closer, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but — isn't _that _the person in your drawing earlier?" She cocked her head in the direction of the tap, where Prince Roxas was still trying to sooth his injured hand. Naminé quickly looked at him and then back at the smiling Kairi. Only then she remembered that Kairi had picked up her fallen drawing when that rude driver zoomed by and handed it back to her.

"Uh…yeah, he is," she said in the end. Kairi looked at the prince once more, still smiling.

"Never seen him around here before," she said teasingly. "So who is he? Are you, you know, _showing him around _or what?"

"Yes, I'm showing him around — b-but nothing more than that!" Naminé said. "His name is Roxas. He's…uh, my father's guest."

"Ah…okay, I see," said the other. "Where's he from?"

By this time, Prince Roxas was walking towards her already, his face as serious as ever.

"Roxas, this is Kairi," Naminé said, "Kairi, Roxas."

"Hello," said Kairi. As usual, he merely gave a small bow in return.

"I will be outside," he said, and walked away. The girls watched him as he went, and so did, as Naminé realised, Riku and Sora.

"Wow, such a serious face!" Kairi said. "Where did you say he was from again?"

"I didn't — actually; I don't know where he's from!" Naminé admitted. Kairi looked puzzled. "He's such a quiet person; I could barely get his name out of him…"

Kairi laughed at this, and with a meaningful look, said, "Well, good luck with getting to know him better then. Here's your pizza."

"Thanks," Naminé said, smiling before turning around to join Prince Roxas.

"Hey — hey, Naminé!"

"_Oooh…great…"_ She hesitantly turned around to see Sora and Riku at their table. "Hey, Sora… Riku."

"So who's your boyfriend—?—Ouch! _What _Riku?" Sora said angrily when his friend elbowed him hard on the arm. The silver haired young man merely glared at Sora, who stuck out his tongue and looked at Naminé once more. "So who is he?"

"He's Roxas, my father's guest — I'm showing him around," she recited the lie smoothly, having already said it to Olette, the waitress, and Kairi before.

"Waw…I see, I see," said Sora, glancing at the prince outside the parlour. There was a pause where Sora's innocent eyes slowly squinted suspiciously at Prince Roxas, and then he asked briskly, "How are his grades?"

"His — excuse me?"

"His gra—OUCH! Riku, what is wrong with you?!"

"Who the heck asks about someone's _grades, _anyway?" Riku snapped at Sora's strangeness.

"Well, duh! _I _do! Happy now?" Sora snapped back. Naminé held back a laughter. "Is he gonna enrol in Enix High?"

"Sorry but I haven't got the chance to ask him about that yet, Sora," she said. "He's awfully quiet… Well, see you guys around then."

"Bye," Sora said good-naturedly, while Riku merely gave a nod and a small smile. She quickly went away.

—X—

"So…you mean to say that time freezes there while I'm here?"

"Yes, exactly."

Naminé and Prince Roxas were heading back to Mr. Matsuda's mansion, and she had been explaining about the things she had forgotten to tell him before. She had shown him an illustration from the book where Prince Roxas and his men stood in the cave in front of a black door — well, it used to have Prince Roxas there, but now the illustration merely consisted of a man with spiky red hair and the rest of the party standing, as if waiting, in front of the door.

The prince admitted that that was the last time he saw Axel and the others before he opened the door and got sucked into an awful place. The next thing he knew, he was in Naminé's room.

"As long as you are here," she said, holding the book for him to see, "they will be like this — waiting and unaware of anything."

The prince observed the illustration for a long time, as if longing to return to Axel and the rest of his men. "They…will be all right, won't they?"

Naminé nodded and closed the book. "Yes, they're gonna be fine." They continued to walk in silence, but both their heads were full of thoughts: the prince was probably worrying about his family and kingdom and men and his fate — but Naminé was thinking of something _else._ Each time she tried to ask him about his upcoming battle with Xemnas, or about re-conquering his castle, he seemed to avoid answering them. It was as if he had no answers, or maybe he had them but was not entirely confident with them — or it was also possible that he did not like his own answers to those questions…

She was so immersed in this thoughts, she didn't realised the prince stopping abruptly in his tracks. "What? What is it?"

"That...that incredibly fast carriage—"

"The car, milord, the _car."_

"Yes, the car — does _that _one belong to your father?"

Prince Roxas was pointing at Mr. Matsuda's mansion. Naminé looked, and indeed she saw a car that wasn't her father's: it was the same white car that nearly hit her earlier that day. She frowned and crossed the street hurriedly, followed by the storybook prince. Whose car could that be? What was the rude guy doing _here, _anyway?

When they almost reached the front gates, Prince Roxas stepped in front of her protectively. "Follow me closely," he said in a low voice, slowly approaching the gates. She deeply appreciated what he just did to her, but said nothing. "Next time you show me around this place, I am bringing my sword—"

"No, you cannot do that!" she whispered back. "Do you want to get arrested by the cops or something?"

"Cops?" he repeated, turning around slightly.

"Yeah, the cops! The—"

But Naminé's words were drowned by a loud shout, coming from none other than Olette, her father's neighbour:

"LUXORD! LUXORD! Oh, where _is _he? You'd better get out — GET OUT NOW—!"

"Hey, scream all you want babe — I ain't goin' anywhere. Besides, this isn't your mansion," said another voice — a male's voice. Naminé quickly urged the prince to enter and see what was going on. She took in the scene in front of her: Olette's flowers around the fence were pretty much ruined, and Olette herself was wet. Her watering can was on the ground, in Mr. Matsuda's side of the fence, near the feet of the male offender. Olette saw them walking past the gates, and immediately said:

"Naminé! Thank goodness you're here — this— this idiot— he just— _look what he did!"_

The prince also found this male person to be very rude, for he had immediately stepped forth when the offender turned around lazily to look at them — but Naminé managed to grab the prince's arm in time as she realised who it was.

"Hayner?" she said carefully, examining the offender. "Oh. My. Lord. Hayner, _is that you?"_

Hayner Matsuda carelessly waved a hand. "Yo, Nam. S'up?"

Naminé gaped at him in disbelieve. "The last time I saw you — you were — you were _this _short!" she said, one hand gesturing somewhere near her hips.

"Yeah, sorry but apparently guys grow taller than girls."

She let out a small laughter, but was still very much shocked to see her cousin. She pointed at the car, "And is this yours?"

"Mm-hm," he said lazily.

"You nearly hit me in front of the school earlier!"

"Oh that was you?" he said. "Thought there was something familiar about that scream — sorry, cousin."

Naminé rolled her eyes, and shifted her attention to Olette, who was watching this scene with a deep angry frown. "Oh my god, Hayner, what did you _do?"_ She quickly knelt down and picked up the watering can, and handed it back to Olette over the fence. She snatched it away roughly, still glaring at Hayner. "I'm truly sorry, Olette—!"

But Olette was already marching off towards her mansion, and slammed the door shut.

"Ouch," said Hayner playfully, "that's one feisty neighbour."

"What did you do?" Naminé repeated seriously, glaring at him. He raised his hands in surrender.

"Nothin'. I honked once or twice to check if Uncle Matt was at home — she was too much of a busy body so I guess she needed at least a refreshing shower."

"So you spilled the water all over her?" she asked. "Hayner! You can't do that!"

"Yeah? Says who?"

"Me!" Naminé said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him out of the mansion. "You're going to apologise to her, _right now_—"

"Oh, whoa, whoa! No, I am _not!" _Hayner said, breaking free from her grasp. "If anyone should be apologising, it's _her._" He then casually walked back inside, and that was when he saw the prince. Naminé quickly stood by the storybook character's side.

"Umm, this is Roxas, my papa's guest," she said quickly. Hayner crossed his arms and examined the prince up and down. "Roxas, this is Hayner, my cousin."

"Roxas, huh?" he asked. The prince bowed. "I think I remember — he's a prince right? Whose family turned into stone?"

Naminé and Prince Roxas' eyes widened and they looked at each other before looking at Hayner again.

"Y-you…you know him?" Naminé asked.

"Course I do," he said, approaching those two and examining the prince once more.

"So…the White Witch's family knows about me?" the prince asked. Hayner eyed him for a while, not at all smiling or laughing at what the prince had just said. Then, wordlessly, he extended a hand.

"Hayner," he said, re-introducing himself. Prince Roxas hesitantly took it, and the shook hands. Then Hayner did something really unexpected, because all her life, Naminé had known him as a confident and sometimes proud cousin — he bowed. "Milord," he said, "fret not! I'll help yah out. So chill and don't look so much like you've been forced to drink a bath tub of vinegar or something."

Here, he winked at the flabbergasted Naminé before putting an arm around the prince's shoulder, and another around hers, and dragging them both towards the entrance door of the mansion, asking loudly whether the package in Naminé's hand contained pizza, because his powerful nose could smell it even before they approached the mansion.

* * *

**A/N: **Did I tell you guys I love Hayner so much? :D I'd call this chapter '_Meet the Friends'_ if I were to name the chapters at all.

Okay, **some interesting facts here:** Apparently the **drinking straw** is pretty old too. It originated from the **Sumerians** (from Sumer, south of Iraq — from the late 6th millennium BC till the early 2nd millennium BC) and was used for drinking beer to avoid the solid by-products of fermentation. The modern drinking straw, however, was patented in 1888 by **Marvin C. Stone.** And as for pizza, it has a complicated history and people have debated on it for a long time. Since the late 19th century, pizza has spread throughout the world.

And **some notes here:** Naminé's father's name was not Matt, despite Hayner calling him 'Uncle Matt'. He was using a short form of 'Matsuda'. And for once, I do not want a silly/dumb/slightly clueless/stupid Sora in my fanfic. I love Sora so much and he's just innocent and pure, but many people have interpreted that as stupidity. So, even though he appeared silly and clueless in here, he was also clever. He managed to defeat Naminé in a history test, and also happened to be quite competitive about grades. :D Oh, and you'll soon know who Luxord was in this. Maybe some of you could guess already?


	6. Chapter 6

**Once Upon a Time…**

**A/N: **Hey, it's me again. Thanks to those of you who read, reviewed, and read and reviewed. :D I sometimes feel a lack of Roxas in this fic — maybe because he mainly sat there and listened as people talked to each other. He's too quiet. D:

* * *

—6—

Hayner Matsuda was Naminé's seventeen-year-old cousin, conveniently the same age as her, and used to be really naughty when he was a boy. Naminé always dreaded a visit from cousin Hayner, knowing that he would steal her candies, or hide her crayons, or drag her along in his little adventure games. He used to have messy wavy light brown hair, but now nine years after, his wavy hair was gelled up stylishly and every article of clothing he wore was screaming, "I'm worth 300 munny and above!"

Nine years had really altered him physically, and a little emotionally. From the fight between him and Olette, she could roughly tell that he still loved to be a bully, but he was not as loud as he was before, and most certainly was cooler.

"So, exactly why are you here, Hayner?" she asked, pouring some tea into two cups, for Hayner and Prince Roxas. The boys were sitting together in the living room and had pretty much ignored her when she fetched Luxord to get tea going: Hayner was teaching the prince how to play pinball on the phone, and he seemed to face no difficulty at all in doing so. When she got no replies, she sighed sat next to Hayner and tried to see.

"Pinball, milord?" she asked with an arched eyebrow. Still she got no answer. Naminé shook her head, smiling. "Hayner, why are you here?" she tried again.

"Student exchange programme," he said shortly.

"_Student exchange programme?" _she repeated flatly. "You know — the point of such programmes is so that the exchange student gets to learn a new culture or something. You've been here hundreds of times before—"

"Yea, when I was a kid. Besides, aren't you glad I'm here?" He gave a meaningful glance at the prince.

"I was just about to ask you that," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. "How d'you know about the book?" Naminé asked in a low voice.

"It's our _family's _book — duh…"

"Seriously, Hayner."

"Like I said, it's our family's book. My dad had to solve your dad's Magical Axe Murderer thing…so yeah. Couple of weeks ago, my dad emailed Uncle Matt and asked about you, whether you've, you know, received anyone yet. We pretty much figured out that you would soon, because you're already seventeen."

"So we get these people once we're seventeen?"

"Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen or nineteen I think," Hayner said, turning his attention to the prince again, "but never twenty. Anyway, I thought I might be useful to you here — and I know and insider for this programme so I asked him to let me stay at my uncle's instead. He was okay with it."

Naminé rolled her eyes, and remembered how Hayner, at a young age of seven, had bribed an ice cream man to give him one free toy if he paid twice for the ice cream — needless to say, that man was really irresponsible for taking a seven-year-old kid's bribe. "Yeah right. How much did you pay him?" she replied.

"Not much," he replied absent-mindedly. "My dad actually contributed too, knowing that I'm here not so much for fun but to help instead."

"Oh, that's so kind of you," she said, a little sarcastically. Hayner made a 'whatever' look before snatching the phone away from the prince.

"Okay, enough games Sire," he said. "Now, let's start with turning you into a normal teenager who has acne problems and I'm-Cool-and-Conceited complex."

"He doesn't _have _the I'm-Cool-and-Conceited complex, Hayner," Naminé said patiently, feeling that she needed to defend the prince. "Besides, I already taught him a bit—"

"About the cell phone, right? Good thinking — easier for him to contact you if anything happens," Hayner said wisely. "But really, I mean it: let's get serious here — Prince Roxas, you are either going to be here for a long time, or for a _very _long time. So what we need now is a background story for you — who you are, where you're from, whether your sister is hot or—"

"—I don't have any sisters—"

"—_Hayner!"_

"Okay, okay, only joking…!" said Hayner. "Right. So what's your name?"

"Prince Roxas of the Cassiopeia —"

"WRONG!"

The prince and Naminé were slightly startled by this.

"You are Roxas…Hikari," Hayner said after a while. Hikari meant light, and it was the right name for a prince who came from a kingdom named after one of the constellations. "Now, why are you here?"

The prince looked at Hayner carefully. "Even if I tell you, you will insist that it is wrong," he said.

"A very good point there, Roxas." The prince looked at him sharply, as if uncomfortable with Hayner addressing him without using the 'prince' title. "You'll have to get used to it, otherwise people will get suspicious! All right — you're here cuz you're joining the same student exchange programme with me."

"But Hayner, what about his student records and all those official and important stuff?" Naminé asked. "Are you gonna bribe the teachers or what?"

"Cousin, it is high time you are introduced to the Adobe Photoshop family."

"Thanks, but I prefer doing the line art by hand."

"That's really nice — but no. I meant editing my student files and such and turn it into Roxas'. They'll buy it; I'm an expert in this editing business. And I'll make sure all of us get into your class, Nam."

Naminé sighed and thought about this for a while. "I dunno, Hayner. He just got here — when does your programme start anyway?"

"Umm, in three days' time," replied the other.

"I'm kind of worried about him going to school — I mean, imagine facing Seifer's disciplinary committee! And can he handle the classes and lessons? History, for example — he must suck at that… No offense, milord."

"It's ROXAS!" Hayner unnecessarily shouted to correct her. "You'd better get used to it, because you could get stuck with _him—"_ he pointed at the prince accusingly, "—for two or three decades!"

"Okay, okay!" she said, giving up. Then, looking at the prince, she said gently, "Is it okay if I call you by your first name?"

Roxas had clearly thought things through, for he had firmly consented. "Your cousin is right… I will have to get used to a commoner's life…"

"Hey watch it, that somehow sounds like an insult," Hayner said. Naminé ignored this and took out the list of themes.

"All right, listen," she said, "I'm going to start figuring out the problem now since we're all seated comfortably here already… I am gonna read you the things in this book, so be ready." This was the real purpose of them gathering in the living room — before Hayner robbed the prince's attention, and introduced him to pinball. Naminé thought she saw the prince shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but she ignored it. "Roxas," she began, ditching the 'prince' and feeling really weird, "from this book, you are described as someone who rarely smiles and rarely laughs — and for this you always think your father prefers your cheerful brother the most, and for this…people call you 'The One with the Heart of Stone'…"

She registered him bowing his head, as if in defeat, after hearing her words. For a moment there, she desperately hoped she could take her words back — somehow, the prince's polite and formal speeches had grown on her, and she could not bear to inflict pain or discomfort to him.

"Then one day," she went on, "your father announced that you were to travel south to stop a small war, while your father and brother were to travel up north for a feast. You felt awfully dejected but obeyed him all the same."

Hayner by now had fallen absolutely quiet — she was glad, for it showed that he respected her and the prince.

"While at an inn, you receive the news of Xemnas' attack, and decided that your men had to split up, one group to help end the war in Akai, another to go against Xemnas. You split up with your party with a very heavy heart though… With Sir Bee's help, you found Master Yen Sid, and he told you of the Door to the Other World, and of me, the White Witch…who could help you."

Naminé stopped and closed the book. She looked at the two boys: the prince was obviously lost in his thoughts, and Hayner, she guessed, was thinking of how to make things easier. She took a deep breath.

"Okay Roxas…you've refused King Mickey's help and you've chosen to see me instead. "Why do you think Master Yen Sid told you I could turn you into a better person?"

"In short — what the heck is wrong with you that needs repairing?" Hayner provided helpfully.

"Hayner," she sighed, "could you just talk to him a little nicely?"

"You're babying him too much, Nam," replied her cousin. "I mean, he's a guy, he can stand a few rough words or curse words—"

"You are _not _going to teach him curse words!"

"A few is necessary I think."

"_Hayner…"_

"What? You're being too nice to him." And then, leaning closer, "Or have you _fallen_ for him…?"

She blushed a little. "No, I have not," she said firmly, "I just want to make sure he doesn't change from good to bad! I'm supposed to make him a _better_ person, remember? Now Roxas," she now turned away from Hayner and was determined to ignore him for a while, "why do you think Master Yen Sid said I could make you a better guy?"

The prince was silent, his handsome face displaying a mild frown. Remembering the list of themes, Naminé tried to ask questions related to the themes:

"You don't have any grudges against your father, do you?" she began, and the theme she was focusing on was 'love'. "You know…for favouring your brother more instead of being fair? Do you _love _him?"

Prince Roxas was quiet for a moment, but then said, "He is my father and I do not have any grudges against him, or my brother. Even if my father loves my brother best, he still loves me and that is good enough. I am thankful."

Naminé did feel a little ashamed of suggesting it in the first place. "Sorry," she said. "Well, what?" she snapped at Hayner, who was looking at her with the 'how could you?' face. "I _have _to make sure."

"It is all right," the prince said.

"Okay then…what about your people? They called you the one with the heart of stone, even though they don't know you personally."

"Nam, you sound like you're trying to turn him against his own people."

"I. Have. To. Make. _Sure," _she said through clenched teeth, glaring at Hayner. What's wrong with him? She thought he would understand! It was to figure out what the heck was wrong with Prince Roxas, right? So she had to do it!

"It is not their fault," the prince said. "After I take down Xemnas, I will show them who I really am inside. But now, I do not blame them at all…"

"Okay then, I'm pretty sure you're not _afraid _of facing Xemnas," she said, referring to the theme 'courage'. Almost at once, Prince Roxas' eyes lit up and he looked at Naminé.

"I am not a _coward _prince if that is what you are implying," he shot, his blue eyes burning. "If anyone is a coward, it is Xemnas himself — attacking only when the King's mind was set on a feast and when one prince is away…!"

Both Naminé and Hayner quickly began to assure him that no one thought of him as a coward.

"Then — do you have confidence enough in your men?" Naminé went on as her eyes caught the word 'trust' in the list. "I mean, do you trust them? _Can _you trust them?"

"Yeah…how d'you tell if there are any traitors among 'em?"

"No," said Prince Roxas, standing up and pacing slowly, "I trust my men. I trust Axel."

"Well, ya got evidence that they're trustable?" Hayner asked.

"Yes," said Prince Roxas firmly, turning to glare at Hayner, "I trust Axel and my men. Master Yen Sid would've known if there are any traitors among them…he had given us each a goblet of potion upon our arrival. We first though it was plain water, but he told us later that it was a kind of potion that will show a person's true colours."

"Cool. Is it veritaserum?" Hayner joked, clearly thinking of the Harry Potter series. So it was normal for the cousins to be surprised when Prince Roxas confirmed that it was.

"It _was _called veritaserum?" Naminé gaped at the prince. "Wow…that's new."

"Hey! Did he have polyjuice potion too?"

"Poly…? No, I do not think so."

"Still, that's cool though," Naminé said. "But anyway — you trust your men, that's good… Then…do you feel like there's no hope left? Y-you know, to defeat Xemnas?"

The cousins waited for Prince Roxas to retort, but he didn't. "I know I can win this," he said, "I trust my men." Then, looking up, he smiled at Naminé. "And I trust in you. We have enough hope."

Naminé could once more feel her face going red, but was saved from the troubles of giving a reply when Hayner butted in:

"Aww…so cyooot…!"

"Shut up, Hayner," she said once she had recovered, and looked at the list again. "Well, seems to me that you're quite ready to face Xemnas after all… I mean, you trust your men, you'll have King Mickey's help — but you said you want me to change you into a better person. How? In what aspect?"

Once more, the prince sort of bowed his head and looked gloomy. Naminé had seen enough of this attitude from him — what was it that he was keeping secret? She needed to know, and he needed to cooperate, or else, like Hayner said, she could be stuck with him for a _very_ long time.

—X—

Naminé frowned slightly as she read the few last sentences on the paragraph before typing it down using her laptop. She was nearly halfway through Prince Roxas' story, and she was determined to type the whole thing and save it before the story disappeared. She was feeling quite sleepy by that time, because usually after school, she would sit at home and finish her homework — but today she had to show a storybook prince around, and _then _finish her homeworks (maths homework wasn't too kind either — nonetheless she managed to finish it in a short time). The sun had just gone down, and she was now relaxing on her bed while she typed away.

She had occasionally called Hayner to make sure things were okay — God knows what that cousin of hers could be teaching Prince Roxas at the moment…how to speak the Cool Language? How to flirt? How to pick up a fight? No, no, she mustn't think like this — she could trust Prince Roxas, he should be able to decide what's good and what's not… He wasn't some dumb five-year-old anyway!

Unconsciously, her hand flew to her eye again to rub it. She was growing incredibly tired, but managed to read the book further:

"_The White Witch touched the prince's chest, over his heart, and smiled warmly. 'Child,' said she, 'without the heart, you cannot feel, and without feeling, you cannot succeed.'_

'_I do not have the heart of stone!' the prince insisted. 'I am not cruel!'_

"_The warm smile on the White Witch's wise face did not fade, in fact, it grew wider as she said, 'No one says you are cruel, my prince. Indeed you are not, and you cannot believe the words of those who know nothing but merely accused you of being so. You are an obedient son, an affectionate brother, a responsible prince — what people accuse you of only shows their jealousy. But in a certain aspect, they are right: you do not feel with your heart — you insist on solving things with only your intelligence. You _refuse _to feel…'"_

Naminé dragged a finger over the illustration of the White Witch: she was tall and graceful, with long black hair. She was wearing a white robe and a matching white hat, and on her finger was a simple golden ring with a white diamond on it. To think of herself as _this _woman in the book was almost absurd — she was no where near graceful or wise.

Putting the thoughts of the White Witch aside, she then focused on the conversation in the story: so the witch said Prince Roxas refused to feel…did this mean he was incapable of feeling anger, sadness, happiness or love? But to Naminé, he appeared pretty pissed off when he talked of Xemnas, and pretty sad when he remembered his family and kingdom. She read on:

"_Prince Roxas was silent for a moment or two, and then he spoke, 'But according to some, blocking your feelings and hiding your humanity makes you stronger when facing the enemy.'_

'_Yes,' said the Witch, 'but you will be surprised at how difficult it is to solve a problem when you block these feelings. Without compassion, sadness, anger, joy and happiness, you cannot understand how precious the human life is. If you cannot understand this, then how can you possibly rescue anyone or anything? If a thief knows not the value of a jewel, would he be stealing it? If a prince knows not the value of the human life, would he be rescuing it?'_

'_But I do love my father! My brother! My people, my kingdom!'_

'_I know,' said she, still in a calm voice, 'I know you do — but you do not love them with all your might. You insist upon intelligence'— the White Witch touched the young prince's forehead —'and you are denying your feelings'— she touched his heart— 'if you wish to rescue everyone and everything, your intelligence and feelings must be balanced.'_

"But he insisted that he wasn't…" Naminé said alone. She recalled the prince denying every negative thing she had asked… Did he hate his father? No, he loved him. Did he blame his people? No, he did not, for it wasn't their fault. Was he afraid of facing Xemnas? No, he wasn't a coward. Did he doubt his people? No, he trusted them with all his life. Did he feel hopeless? No, he trusted in hope, he saw hope in _her…_

"_The White Witch's hands glowed, and Prince Roxas felt very warm. He felt that he had finally understood her words. The hand pressed against his chest felt warmer by each moment, as if his heart of stone was melting…"_

"Okay, eww," said Naminé, crinkling her nose. "Melting hearts — sheesh…!" Deciding that her back needed to rest, she closed the book and tossed it to the bedside table before switching off and putting away her laptop. She stared at the ceiling and started to think. "He must be lying about something," she told herself. "Either that or he hasn't realised that he cannot feel yet…" After a short pause, it dawned on her. "And _you _must help him realise all that…!"

She was determined to ask her father and Hayner about this, because she was pretty sure that she didn't know how to turn a storybook character's heart of stone into a real one. In fact, she was still waiting for her father to call her — he had promised to go out for a dinner to discuss about the whole storybook conflict, but Naminé had a hunch that he wouldn't be home until at least 10pm. Deep down, Naminé knew that her father loved her, but at times, he could sort of forget about her completely — she didn't like it. Then again, which child would like that? Grabbing her mother's attention had been quite difficult whenever Jecht was around — and he was around for most of the times, if not in the house, on the phone or in the online chat room (yes, she was very well aware that her mother was acting like a 17-year-old who had just discovered how cool it was to chat with someone you liked on the net).

Naminé was about to reach for her cell phone to check on Hayner when the phone suddenly rang: it was her father. Quickly, she answered the call.

"_Hey, Nami-chan. I hope you weren't sleeping."_

"No, no I wasn't," she said, despite the fact that she almost did.

"_Great, I'm gonna pick you up in fifteen minutes — we're having dinner at my house, Luxord's cooking again."_

Naminé merely laughed. She had not tasted her father's butler's cooking for a while now. "Okay, I'll get ready," she said.

"_Whoa, whoa — hold it. You didn't tell me Hayner's here."_

"Sorry, I forgot. How is he doing with the prince?" she asked.

"_He's doing fine. Roxas has started to even sound like him a bit."_

"Oh no."

Her father laughed at her remark. _"Don't worry, he just sounds like him. He doesn't really know what the words mean, anyway."_

"Oh _no," _she said again. Not knowing what you're saying is worse than sounding like someone — for all you know; Hayner might've taught the prince the F word! "Papa, you'd better keep an eye on Hayner and watch over Prince Roxas! I don't want him throwing curse words around!"

Again, Mr. Matsuda merely laughed. _"He is _fine, _Nami-chan! Now get ready, I'll pick you up soon."_

—X—

Naminé put down her book as she heard a car honking outside, and a quick glance out the window confirmed that it was her father. Grabbing her small bag (which contained the storybook — she rarely left home without it), she made her way outside. Mr. Matsuda was alone, and he beamed as he saw her.

"Hey, Nami-chan," he greeted as she entered the car.

"Hey papa."

"I hope you're not crossed about what happened earlier today," he said, eyeing her closely.

"I am a little crossed with you," said she, "but let's see you make it up tonight."

Her father was about to say something when another car stopped right in front of the house. Mr. Matsuda, of course, did not recognise the car, but Naminé did: it was Jecht's. He must've picked Naminé's mother up at work, and they must've had dinner together — no doubt Jecht would have to pick her mother up for work tomorrow morning, seeing that she had left her car at work. The other pair in Jecht's car was equally confused to see Mr. Matsuda's car in front of the house, and Naminé's mother was especially confused when she saw her daughter all dressed up.

"Nami-chan?" she called out from the window.

Naminé gave a small wave. "Hey mama."

Now frowning, the elder Miss Nakamura poked her head out of the window further. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Yes, actually," replied he younger Miss Nakamura, "cousin Hayner arrived today, we're having dinner together at papa's."

Naminé swore that if her mother's glare could kill, her father would've been dead by now. "Well, you didn't tell me anything about your cousin arriving today," was all she had to say.

"Are you sure? Check your phone, mama," she replied in a flat voice. A moment or two passed where her mother quickly checked her cell phone, and no doubt, she found several missed calls and numerous text messages.

"But you didn't ask for my—"

"We're kind of running late, you know," Mr. Matsuda cut across her, tapping the steering wheel impatiently. He would've been killed for the second time if Naminé's mother's glare is deadly.

"Enjoy your time together then," Jecht suddenly interfered, earning a glare from Miss Nakamura Sr. "I mean — why not? We've had our dinner."

"Yes, and we actually brought back some for Nami-chan," snapped Miss Nakamura Sr. Naminé groaned silently as Mr. Matsuda retorted back. She hated it when both her parents started to argue about rights and permissions and other things regarding her — and she hated it more when one parent had won, but continued to ignore her afterwards. It was as if they were simply trying to prove who was better or who was more powerful. She was about to explode when both her parents started to bring up old stories, when Jecht himself did that.

"Okay, okay — enough!" said Jecht, a frown displaying mild astonishment. "Come on, Naminé is just having dinner with her father — I don't see anything wrong with that," he said to Naminé's mother. "You'll see her again tonight — you get to see her every day. That's her _father, _her _parent — _you have to remember that."

Naminé waited for either of her parents to shout insults at Jecht, but neither did. After an awkward pause, her mother consented.

"Thank you!" Mr. Matsuda spat before driving away. The poor child, on the other hand, reminded herself to thank Jecht some time later, although she knew that doing so would be extremely awkward. They whole journey was quiet, except for Mr. Matsuda's constant mumbles, and he was not in a good mood when they finally arrived.

"Papa," Naminé said finally, taking him by the arm, _"papa._ Relax. Just let it go already."

"…I hate it when your mother is like that."

"I hate it when _both_ of you are like that," she said calmly before walking ahead, leaving her father behind and hoping he'd be able to catch the hint. Even before she reached the dining hall, she could hear Hayner's voice, and also Luxord's voice — but she heard none of Roxas'. She was smiling widely as she got closer to the dining hall, but her smile vanished almost in an instant as she saw who were in their party:

Prince Roxas, Hayner, and _Olette._

Naminé stopped dead at the entrance of the hall, her mouth hanging open slightly, but Mr. Matsuda entered with all smiles, saying, "Ah, you're here already!" and Olette replied something sweetly. Naminé caught Hayner's eyes and her face was enough for Hayner to guess what was in her head: "What the heck is SHE doing here??" Her cousin merely shrugged, and turned to Luxord to chat some more. She flashed a quick smile at Olette before making her way towards Hayner and sat down on his right.

"Exactly how is inviting Olette over for dinner gonna help me with Roxas' conflicts?" she hissed at Hayner once she had pulled him close enough.

"Roxas and I," Hayner whispered back excitedly, "came up with a nick name for Olette — ya ready? _The Commoner!"_

"Hayner!" she hissed back. "You're not answering my question…!"

"Well, you father thinks it best for his new baby grand piano to be 'launched' by a talented young lady," Luxord suddenly cut in quietly, pouring Naminé a glass of cold water. Naminé's mouth hung open.

"He bought a new _piano?"_

"Mm-hm."

"_When?!"_

Luxord thought for a moment or two. "I reckon it's been three or four weeks now."

"_That _long and he didn't even tell me anything?"

"Well, you could've inspected the mansion closely," Hayner said, "but you didn't. Yo Rox — French fries! Repeat after me — French, _friiieeesss…"_

Naminé was about to inform Hayner that Prince Roxas was _not _a three-year-old who just discovered that he could do the F sound by pressing his upper teeth softly on his lower lip when her eyes caught sight of the storybook prince: his golden hair seemed different — no doubt Hayner had tested his stylist ability on him earlier — and he was wearing a casual dark blue, long sleeve T-shirt and a pair of plain black pants. He even had a cool-looking watch (again, no doubt provided by Hayner) resting on his left wrist. She was too occupied with Olette and Hayner's going-off-topic conversation to notice all this. Her frowns immediately turned into smile.

"Oh my goodness," she half squealed, half whispered, as she leaned closer to the Prince (who was sitting on Hayner's left), "you look — awesome!"

Prince Roxas beamed — it was the first time she witnessed him doing so.

"Thank you," he said shortly.

"You know — you're doing really well with this whole adjusting thingy," she commented, still examining him up and down. "I like your hair."

He beamed again, but this time he bowed his head and scratched his neck a little shyly.

"Yeah, _I_ did that," Hayner butted in.

"And your clothes!" Naminé went on, ignoring her cousin. "You look nice in them…!"

"It's just a plain T-shirt and black pants, Nam," said her cousin, stuffing a handful of French fries into his mouth without looking like a completely disgusting pig. She gave him a 'you know what I mean' look.

"So. _You _seem completely calm in Olette's presence," Naminé said, starting a new topic. Hayner, in a cool manner, took a sip out of his drinking glass and threw a lazy, half-lidded look at Olette, who caught his eyes and narrowed hers spitefully.

"It's just a matter of time, cousin," said he dangerously, "just a matter of time."

Recalling awful memories of Hayner when they were both children, Naminé wished that the time wouldn't come at all — he could get _very _mean if he wished to. But a small part of her was secretly supporting Hayner…she certainly did not like Olette stealing her father's attention, and she was beginning to hate the way Olette smiled at _her _storybook prince.

* * *

**A/N: **Hey…! I hope this chapter isn't full of pointless scenes. I mean, at least now we kind of know what's wrong with Prince Roxy, right? Meh. Okay, I did want to post this chapter on January the first, you know, like a new year present, but I didn't. :D I'm not going to try and give any excuses here. Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR, people! :)

[Actually, I just remembered this: I intentionally stopped writing this chapter for a while because I think people weren't reviewing chapter 5 as much as I wanted. XD]

And, oh -- something in this chapter was inspired by Avatar Yangchen. :D I like her~


	7. Chapter 7

**Once Upon a Time…**

**A/N:** (deep bow) I am awfully sorry for the awfully long , delay. I feel awful. D: I just entered college life and MY GAWD IT'S SO abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz... D: So...once again, I'm awfully, terribly sorry...

* * *

—7—

Naminé and Olette each had charms of their own, and what one girl possessed was the very thing the other one lacked: Olette's charm was, of course, her fresh personality and her ability to communicate with people without feeling all the awkwardness — she was always incredibly comfortable with people, be it those she had known for a long time or those she had never before met; Naminé's charm on the other hand, was not something she was very much aware of — it was her natural elegance — everything she did was quite impossible to copy, from the way she sat with such graceful a posture, to the way she scowled at someone with her blue, blue eyes.

Olette, as friendly and charming as she was, could barely earn a praise for being 'beautiful' — the closest thing she had ever received was 'very pretty'; and Naminé, beautiful and elegant as she was, was never quite easy to befriend or talk to, for she lacked Olette's confidence and was overall a reserved young girl.

It was, therefore, rather unfortunate that Mr. Matsuda preferred Olette's friendliness rather than his own daughter's presence that night. He talked and joked and laughed with Olette, to the point of ignoring Naminé, Prince Roxas and even his nephew who really deserved his attention since he was a guest.

"Did you discover anything while I was away?" Naminé asked Hayner in a low voice after dinner. They were gathered around the new baby grand piano and were listening to Olette's performance. Hayner, whose chocolate eyes were staring sharply at Olette, replied:

"Mm — he's interested to learn more about my Nitendo DS…"

"_Hayner…"_

"Relax, I was only joking," said Hayner, rolling his eyes a little as Mr. Matsuda (who was standing next to the piano) applauded when Olette finished the song she was playing. "Okay — he's really intelligent, like, I showed him how my laptop works and the next thing you know, he was Googling the name of his kingdom."

Naminé raised her eyebrows at this and turned to look at the prince. He was not aware of this conversation for he was once again listening intently as Olette launched into another song on the piano.

"And there's something else," Hayner said, sitting up properly. "There's something weird with the way he thinks."

"…Like…what?"

"He has an awfully strong sense of justice…I'm starting to think he's not thinking the way other people think."

"…Hah?"

"It's kinda hard to explain," he said, folding his arms and frowning a little. "He knows what's right and what's wrong, but…I dunno, something's amiss."

"Like what?" Naminé pressed on.

"I'm not sure, cousin. But--"

"Come, come, now! Stop your chitchat, people!" Mr. Matsuda suddenly said. He had a broad smile on his face as he turned to the other three youngsters. "The three of you seem a little cold towards Olette — she's trying to cheer us up for the night, you know!"

Naminé opened her mouth to say something, but Hayner cut across her by saying, "Well Uncle Matt — _you _seem awfully cold towards _me, _and I am your guest, you know."

"Ah, don't say that," said Mr. Matsuda, still smiling as if he didn't really listen to what Hayner just said. "Come, Olette, play us another—"

"And I dunno about Nami and Roxy here, but those songs were awfully _boring."_

Mr. Matsuda turned to look at Hayner. "Eh?"

Olette, too, directed her attention to Hayner. "And I suppose you can play better?"

Naminé knew that Hayner was _totally_ smirking in his mind right now (but he was pretending to be cool and showed no expression on his face) — she had seen him perform dozens of times back when they were children and he was _damn good._ Naminé used to take classes as well, but had to quit when her parents got divorced. Her mama could not afford to buy a keyboard let alone a real piano back then (she was sure that they could afford one _now, _but she was also sure that her mama was too occupied with Jecht to listen to her), so she stopped playing.

"I suppose so," Hayner replied in a boring voice. Olette narrowed her eyes at him and stood up in one swift motion.

"Then please, play us something that's _not _boring."

Hayner stood up as well, as if accepting Olette's 'challenge'. "With pleasure."

They switched places: Hayner was now at the piano, and Olette sat down on the sofa next to Naminé and folded her arms. "Is he good?" she asked without looking at Naminé.

"Uh…well, he's been taking classes since—"

Whatever Naminé had to say couldn't possibly describe how good cousin Hayner was, but the sound they heard next described _everything. _Olette was good, yes — but Hayner was simply _better._ Naminé's mouth hung open slightly as Hayner's hand flew across the piano — Prince Roxas was listening even more intently this time, and Mr. Matsuda stepped back a little, observing his nephew with an impressed look on his face. Olette, on the other hand, was steadily glaring across the room at Hayner as he performed.

"Your cousin is indeed talented on the pianoforte," came Prince Roxas' low voice — Naminé jumped slightly, and blushed when she noticed how close he had leaned in to say that.

"Yes, no one would've guessed that a loudmouth like _him _could play the piano," Olette snapped back as Hayner's piano performance launched into its dramatic phase. "I should think people wouldn't be able to concentrate on the song with him boasting about every single thing he owns while performing—"

"With all due respect," came Hayner's voice, but he did not stop playing, "but I should think my audience aren't able to concentrate on the song with _you _being a loudmouth right now, Miss Olette."

An amused smile came across Naminé's face as she witnessed Olette's face turned red. Yes, she liked this so far… Olette had always received nothing but praises — from the teachers, from the students, and even from Naminé's own father — Hayner must be something really unpleasant in Olette's life right now. How dare an outsider insult Princess Olette! Naminé almost laughed out loud at this thought of hers, but she managed to hide her grin by pretending to fix her dress.

"Oh, bravo! Bravo, Hayner!" Mr. Matsuda said, nodding and clapping as Hayner's song came to an end. "You've gotten way, _way _better since the last time I saw you!"

"Uncle Matt, I was _seven _when I last saw you," Hayner said nonchalantly, "but thank you for that comment, anyway."

"Well now!" said Mr. Matsuda, "you and Olette could practise together or something in the future, don't you think so?"

Olette's face turned scarlet once more and she could only scowl while trying to come up with a fowl response, but Hayner coolly said, "Nah — I'm here to spend my time with Roxy and Nami here."

"Oh?" said Mr. Matsuda, mildly surprised. "Well, Olette is in the same class as Naminé — maybe _all _of you should be friends!"

Hayner pulled a thinking face, and Naminé could see a mischievous glint in his eyes as he opened his mouth to reply, so she cut across him briskly, "What's that song you just played, Hayner?"

"Meh?"

"The song you just played," she repeated, smiling innocently, "what's it called?"

"Oh…ah…I don't really know," said Hayner, and Olette started to snort, like, 'How can you NOT know what the song is called??' and so Hayner added, _"yet."_

"You do not know what the song is called _yet?" _Prince Roxas repeated. Everyone looked at him — he had not spoken much since dinner started.

"Yeah, Roxy," said Hayner, approaching the prince and sitting down next to him, "I dunno what it's called _yet. _I started composing it around two weeks ago."

"Two weeks ago?" repeated the prince. "My word, that _is_ a short period of time!"

"I have to agree, Hayner," said Mr. Matsuda, his attentions no doubt transferred towards his nephew, "does your father know about this?"

"Eh. Dad never bothers. He has no talent in music."

Both Naminé and Mr. Matsuda laughed at this because it was true.

"I guess the family's musical talents don't flow in him," said Naminé, refilling everyone's glasses as they all sat down around the small coffee table (except for Olette, who was still standing with her arms folded). Afterwards, Mr. Matsuda interviewed Hayner about his piano classes and how he had progressed throughout the years — and Naminé couldn't help but feel satisfied as the star of the night changed from Olette to cousin Hayner.

* * *

**A/N:** Was it short? I know it's short... D: It's more like a filler chapter, I think. But I really, think I should post this, just so people know that I'm, er, still alive? XD Yeah. And also as a motivation for me to keep this fic going, I guess. Well. Till we meet again.


	8. Chapter 8

**Once Upon a Time...**

-- FILLER CHAPTER, LOL! –

**A/N: **FILLER CHAPTER! (author does a wacky dance) I planned to accumulate some 'deleted scenes' before posting them, but I think I should post this just so you guys know that I'm still continuing this fic. I know it's not much, and I know I've disappeared for a long time, but please have faith in me! ;__;

The next REAL chapter is currently being written, and is five pages long so far.

* * *

**Original Riku Shoe Scene, after the night of Roxas' attack:**

"— Ooh — oh, sorry, sorry!"

"Whoa — watch your step—!"

"_Oh great — speak of the devil."_

"Hey," Riku greeted her with a small, cool smile.

"Hey," she replied, shoving yet another book into the locker. "Sorry I — stepped on your shoe," she apologised, pointing at the other's shoe.

"Oh, don't fuss," he said, then frowning a little, said, "Hey what's — what's that — on your neck?"

He bent quite low to have a look at her neck that she was sure he could see the hair inside her nose or something — and because of this embarrassing thought, she voluntarily looked up so he could see it.

"Oh, this?" she said, placing a hand automatically on the band aid. "Nothing, really — I got it while cooking last night."

"_Cooking?"_

"Yep," she said casually, taking out her sketchbook and putting it inside her bag.

"Are you sure you were cooking and not fighting some criminal or something?"

"_Heh, nice guess, really," _she mentally replied, giving a small smile unintentionally. "So! How may I help you, Riku?" she said, slamming the locker door shut and leaning against it calmly, altogether avoiding Riku's sarcastic question. Here, Riku actually looked like he did not have an answer to her question.

"Well — I was walking this way," he said, "when you stepped on my shoe."

"Ooh, I'm terribly sorry, Riku's shoe," Naminé said, bowing to Riku's shoe a little. "You _would _tell it that I'm sorry, right?" she added, looking seriously at Riku. He laughed, and was about to say something when Naminé copied what Selphie had done earlier: she looked at her watch, faked a shocked expression and said urgently,

"Umm — I'm really sorry about your shoe! But listen, I have to go now, my father he—"

"Mr. Matsuda? _The _Mr. Matsuda?" Riku butted in. "That famous illustrator?"

"Yes, yes," Naminé said impatiently, backing away. "I have to go and meet him now — I'm sorry."

"Yeah, no prob."

"Really sorry about your shoe!" she said one last time, waved at him with a smile, and ran off.

—X—

**Original Prince POV, after meeting Hayner for the first time:**

He sat on the bed, and sighed. Leaning forth, he rested each elbow on each knee, and one hand massaged the bridge of his nose. Opening his eyes once more after a few moments, he looked directly at the sword on the table across the room, and walked towards it.

"I am my father's last hope," he told himself, touching the weapon. "I am Cassiopeia's last hope."

The cousins had left him to rest up for a moment, and apparently the White Witch was already late: she had to go back home before her mother started worrying. She bid the two of the goodbye hastily, requested her cousin, Hayner to say hello to her father for her — smiled and bowed at the prince — before declaring that she shall leave.

Prince Roxas made his way towards the window, through which he could see the roads outside if he craned his neck a little. And, if he opened the window widely, he could climb up and out of it, to sit on the roof outside — this was what he did, because moments earlier as he craned his neck to see the roads, he saw the White Witch Naminé leaving the mansion. She was now walking slowly away from the housing area, her figure getting smaller and smaller. He watched until she was out of sight, but did not look away even though he knew the witch had now proceeded walking down some other road and was not going to turn back.

The White Witch Naminé did not exactly match the image that he had in his mind when he first heard Master Yen Sid talking about her. He imagined her to be solemn, with withering white hair, a long nose and a long white robe — but she wasn't. She was a young woman, who screamed and attacked him with magic potion when he intruded her private chamber, and went beneath the table just to get away from a charming young man — she was _nothing _near solemn. She was lively, and kind once she managed to forgive him for breaking into her house in the middle of the night, and courteous — she hesitated when her cousin told her to call the prince by name and even asked if it was all right…

Prince Roxas inhaled the cool air. The sky was turning orange now…

His attention turned to the next door mansion, the commoner's mansion: the girl, Olette, was sliding open a balcony door, which was exactly opposite the prince's own window. He observed the dark haired commoner for a moment or two, and ended up bowing a quick bow to her when he caught her eyes by accident. She smiled and waved.

"Hey there, Roxas!"

He managed a smile, and did not know what to reply. He just wanted to get back in — he couldn't be bothered about what the commoner had to say. Almost at the same time as he thought of this, his bedroom door swung open.

"Yo, Rox! This is watcha call the French fries — have a taste." Hayner Matsuda came to the window and leaned forth, a bowl of something golden and marvellous-smelling in his hand. "I made Lux cook this for me, I'm starving. You know, Luxord, my uncle's butler? Yeah. You can basically boss him around while you're here."

Thinking of how Hayner had finished the pizza Naminé had brought back, the prince took some of the French fries before asking, "But we all ate already. And you are still hungry?"

"Meh, big appetite. What ta do," replied the other absent-mindedly, but then he saw Olette too, and his good-natured self was gone for a moment. "I see someone's had a nice bath today, eh?" he called out loudly, noticing that she had a towel in her hand and that her clothes had changed.

"Why does that matter to you, pervert?" she shot back.

"Oh _please," _said Hayner, smirking, "I couldn't stand to even look at your face." Then, completely ignoring her, he said excitedly, "Whoa, cool! Is that really yours, Roxas?"

The prince stood up and walked closer to the window to see what Hayner was talking about: it was his sword. Hastily, the prince turned away from Olette who looked as if she was about to say something to him, and climbed back in as Hayner picked the sword up. "You might want to be careful—"

"Whaow! Dang, this thing's heavy!" said the other as he tried to lift it into the air. Instead, the sword fell to the floor but he was still holding the hilt. Once the prince took away the sword, Hayner almost completely ignored the new-found weapon, marched to the window and shut it. "There, easy-peasy. I hate her, by the way, if you haven't noticed," he said lazily, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the window before returning to his bowl of French fries.

"You did that just to get rid of the commoner?"

"The Commoner! Yeah, that's a good one, I'm gonna call her that each time she sticks her ugly face at us!" he cheered, bouncing up and down the prince's bed and now examining his clothes. "Ouch, stiff high collars. How could you wear this?" he asked.

"Those are the clothes the Cassiopeia army wear during battles," the prince explained solemnly, sitting by Hayner's side and taking away from him the clothes that he had always worn proudly.

"Cool," said the other absent-mindedly. The young prince had noticed a particular attitude in Hayner Matsuda: he could sometimes appear like a very proud young man — as if he didn't care of what everyone else had to say — but at times Hayner managed to impress the prince by repeating whatever fact the latter had told the former. Here, Hayner observed the clothes in the prince's hand before concluding, "You must feel extremely weird in those." He nodded at the modern clothes that hung on the prince's body

"Yes, a little," he admitted.

"Well, Uncle Matt's on the way back home — I asked him to buy you a pair of pyjamas and some other stuff. You're gonna learn _a lot_ tonight and we'll test it tomorrow when we meet Nam's mother."

* * *

**A/N: **I deleted these scenes because it didn't turn out well. Plus, I don't want to mix the story up with different characters' points of view, so I removed Roxas' POV.

Expect a drunktard with a driving licence in the next chapter. 8D See you later!


	9. Chapter 9

**Once Upon a Time...**

**A/N: **OMG I'M NOT DEAD YET. (OTL)

* * *

-- 8 –

Naminé did not sleep well that night, despite the fun she had with Hayner and Roxas before she returned home. She was tired, yes, and she fell asleep immediately after she collapsed onto her bed, but she had a weird dream that seemed to continue even after she woke up with a jolt in the middle of the night. It was like those drama series. Just when Naminé managed to convince herself that it was just a dream and fall asleep again, the dream picked up exactly where she left it before she woke up.

In the dream, she was entering her father's mansion. It was dark inside, and she spent a few minutes feeling her way around and ended up stumbling upon something. At first she thought it was some sort of a stone pillar, but it wasn't smooth – there were curves and bumps and stuff. It could only be a carved stone pillar…

And then, the surrounding got brighter as someone else entered the mansion with a candle. It was Hayner, and he looked solemn as he approached her. She was going to ask him what was wrong, but after following his gaze, she knew what was wrong: they were now looking at a horrible stone statue of a frowning man.

It wasn't Roxas' father, and it wasn't hers, either. It was Jecht.

The weirdest part was probably when Olette appeared with Roxas, arm in arm, and then Olette cackled and started to grow taller. Her face changed: she wore purple lipstick and a black dress and was carrying a doll in her hand, and—

_Honk, honk!_

When Naminé opened her eyes, the room was filled with sunlight, and the first thing she heard was her mother's voice downstairs: "Oh, goodness – _Hayner!"_ She heard Hayner greeted his aunt with something cheeky, and he probably cracked one of his stupid jokes because Naminé's mother began to laugh after that.

"Naminé, you didn't tell me Hayner's here!" came her mother's voice from downstairs.

"I didn't?" Naminé said to herself. "Must have forgotten it… Um, wait a sec, I'll be downstairs!"

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until she gets ready, Hayner dear," she heard her mother said as she climbed out of bed and walked towards the door. "Come and have breakfast first."

"Cool. Don't worry – girls _need_ their beauty sleep, you know."

Naminé rolled her eyes. "I heard that, Hayner!" she said before shutting the door.

When she was ready, she went downstairs to greet the two boys in the kitchen. The first thing she noticed was how normal Prince Roxas looked (baseball T-shirt, a pair of jeans and black sneakers) as he sat next to Hayner at the kitchen counter. His golden hair had undoubtedly been styled by Hayner again, for it stood in spikes the way models' hair do in magazines and commercials. He was quiet as Hayner chatted merrily with her mother.

"Hey guys, sorry for the wait," Naminé said. Upon her entrance, Hayner suddenly wolfed down the remainder of his egg sandwich and stood up.

"Nice talking to ya, Aunt Nakamura," he said, sending bits and pieces of bread and egg flying, "gotta go – c'mon Roxy, Nami!"

Naminé managed to grab one egg sandwich before Hayner dragged her and Prince Roxas out of the kitchen. The prince managed a hasty bow and a, "Good-day to you!" before the three of them disappeared out of the kitchen.

"Wow, what's the hurry, Hayner?" Naminé asked as they approached Hayner's car.

"Questions later – wow, hey, children sit behind, adults in front, okay?" he said as Prince Roxas approached the door of the passenger side. Naminé scowled at this.

"Hayner! You don't need to be so rude, you know." Then, turning to the prince, she gave an apologetic smile and said, "I'm sorry, Roxas. You can sit in front—"

"No he can't – I need to tell you something," Hayner said through gritted teeth. Naminé caught the hint with a small, "Ah!"

"It's...no biggie. I can sit at the back."

Naminé turned to face the prince at once. Did that speech come from _him?_ She slowly grinned at him, and he smiled back triumphantly, his amazing blue eyes shining.

"Did I sound normal?" he asked, a tinge of eagerness clearly audible in his voice.

"Yeah!" she said. "Fist bump, come on," she said, offering him her fist. Prince Roxas looked at it hesitantly before bumping his fist against hers. This made her laugh. "Oh my gosh, Hayner – what else did you teach him last night?"

Hayner rolled his eyes. "Can we all just get in the car already?" He was already inside the car and the engine was already running.

"Oh – sorry—"

The two of them got into the car, Naminé sitting in front and Prince Roxas at the back. Almost as soon as they shut the door, Hayner stepped on the pedal and the car almost flew across the road.

"G-gah! Hayner – slow dow– WATCH OUT, THAT'S MRS. KIM!"

Hayner made one sharp movement and the car lurched to the left, avoiding Naminé's neighbour.

"_Hayner, what the hell—?"_

"D'you remember back when we were kids, I used to bother you when you were sleepy?" Hayner asked as he made a sharp turn to the left. Naminé held on to the seat for her dear life.

"Y-yeah – why did you – OH MY GOSH, WATCH OUT! THE CAT, THE CAT, _THE CA—"_

Hayner once more avoided the obstacle before continuing, "Well, you always ended up telling me your secrets or something when you're sleepy – I tried that trick on Roxas, and I think it kinda worked."

"Wha—?"

Still holding on to the seat, Naminé stole a glance at the prince, who, to her surprise, seemed to be enjoying the ride. The whistling wind blew his hair in all direction, and his eyes were squinted, but he had this small grin on his face (the kind little kids would have on their faces whenever they're enjoying something) as he watched the scenery flew by. Turning back to Hayner, she asked, "Well, what did you find out?"

"Earlier, when he wasn't sleepy, I tried provoking him by saying stuff like, 'maybe your dad and bro deserved to be turned into stone' and stuff like that, and he almost immediately became defensive – but when we're both on our beds, ready to go to bed, I tried it again and again, and he actually seemed _tired _of being defensive. It's like – I dunno, like, when you question a lying child many times about something..."

"So – so you mean—" the car lurched to the right as Hayner took the junction "—you think he's _acting _like he's angry?"

"Yeah, like he's faking it, you know?" Hayner said, turning to face her. "But I've got to admit, when he's not sleepy, he's a damn good actor—"

"Hayner – Hayner, eyes on the road – Hayner, red – RED LIGHT!"

The car stopped abruptly, sending everyone lurching forward. Naminé's chest was rising and falling quickly, and she could barely believe that she was still alive.

"I tried it again this morning when he was groggy," Hayner said in a low voice, "and he was like a _robot, _I tell you! I said, 'your dad really deserves to be turned into stone – why don't you just stay here, forget about that silly mission?' and he was, like," (Hayner said the following in a monotonous voice) "'how dare you say that my father is a noble man and the mission is not silly I am going to rescue my kingdom' – it's like a really bad actor delivering a line with all the punctuation marks removed!"

Before Naminé could open her mouth, the light turned green and she braced herself for more of Hayner's crazy driving, but fortunately, a noise stopped Hayner from driving forth: it came from the sidewalk – Naminé turned around to look, and saw a familiar plump figure running towards them. A well-built person and a girl with silver hair were chasing the plump guy.

"N-Naminé, is that _you?"_ Pence shouted as he got closer.

"Friend or foe, cousin?" Hayner asked, head cocked to the side, as he observed the situation.

"Friend," Naminé said. Only then she noticed that Pence was being chased by Rai and Fuu from the 'disciplinary committee'.

"Hop in, friend!" Hayner shouted, gesturing Pence towards his car. Prince Roxas leaned towards the door to open it, but Pence didn't need that: he jumped right in. Hayner immediately stepped on the gas once more, and more of Hayner's crazy driving ensued.

"Why were they chasing after you, Pence?" Naminé asked, and she was once more holding on to her seat. Pence struggled to put the seat belt on.

"Is your friend going to slow down anytime soon?" Pence yelled back.

"The name's Hayner!" Hayner said loudly so that his voice could be heard through the whistling wind.

"I'm Pence! _Please _slow down, I don't think I wanna die today!"

Hayner grinned. "I like you already, Pence."

Pence, who had been Naminé's classmate ever since the first day of high school, turned to look at Roxas helplessly as Hayner went on driving like a criminal being chased by the police. "And you are?" he shouted through the wind.

"I'm Roxaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!" Roxas said as Hayner made a sharp turn, drove through the school gates, and skidded across the parking lot straight towards Mr. Leonhart's shiny car. Naminé squeezed her eyes shut – she did _not _want to witness the calculus teacher's car being destroyed.

"AAAAAAH!" she screamed

"_WE'RE GONNA DIE!"_ Pence screamed.

Suddenly, the car stopped. Naminé waited for the loud "CRASH-PARABOOOM!!!" to happen, but it didn't come. She kept her eyes shut, breathing heavily.

"Am I dead yet?" she heard Pence said from the back seat.

"Nope. Not today, Pence," came Hayner's cheerful voice. Naminé then heard him getting out of the car, and she slowly opened her eyes. The school parking lot came into view, and everywhere around them, students were staring and murmuring things as they pointed at Hayner's car.

"This," she breathed as she unbuckled her seatbelt, "will be the _last _time I sit in your car, Hayner." Roxas stepped out of the car and swayed slightly, but he still looked as if he had had a great time, for his small amused smile was still plastered on his face. Pence quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car as well.

"I think I'm with Naminé on this one," Pence said, "although I really do owe you one – I accidentally bumped into Rai on the way to school, and that's enough to set him chasing after me. So – you're Hayner and you're Roxas, huh?"

"Yep. Student exchange programme," Hayner explained briefly as they started to walk towards the school building.

"I see!" Pence quickly took out his camera from his bag and snapped a picture of Hayner and Roxas. The latter blinked once or twice as the flash came from the camera.

"That's called a camera," Naminé quickly whispered to him, "it takes pictures."

"Takes – _pictures? _How does that work?" he asked, eyeing the camera as Pence tucked it away into his bag.

"Long story," said Naminé. "Anyway, Pence here is with the school newspaper team," she explained, "and he's been my classmate since we first entered high school. And Pence, Hayner here is actually my cousin. He and Roxas will join our school in two days' time. I'm just showing them around today."

"Oh! Well, this will be something to write about! 'Naminé Nakamura's Cousin, the Exchange Student Who Drives Like A Drunktard' – yeah, that'll be a good title! At least, I hope Olette will approve..."

Hayner almost immediately turned to stare at Pence. _"Olette?"_

"Well, yeah – she's the chief editor of our school's newspaper," said Pence as they reached the lockers. "She's been complaining about the lack of creativity lately...honestly, I don't think it's all _that _bad. We've all worked hard to make the articles fun."

Naminé saw a glint of mischief in Hayner's eyes, and she sighed. "C'mon, Hayner, stop trying to bully her," she said in a low voice. "We'll talk to you later, Pence."

"Bye – thanks for the ride. I have to go see Olette for a while... See you in class, Naminé!"

"So, she's the chief editor, huh?" Hayner said, folding his arms as the three of them continued to walk down the hallway.

"She's done great so far, really," said Naminé as they approached her locker, "the newspaper's fun to read. You really shouldn't mess around with her, Hayner, it's not like she's done anything bad to you."

"Psh – she was being a total bitc—"

"_Language_, Hayner!" Naminé said, immediately cupping the prince's ears, "I'm sorry, Roxas," she added, looking at the surprised prince. "I don't want you cursing around him!" she hissed at Hayner as she pulled the prince to stand beside her, away from Hayner. Only then did Naminé notice that low mumbles and stares had been following them ever since they arrived at school. Of course! Who would've thought that the quiet Naminé Nakamura actually _had _guy friends?

Blushing a little as a few female seniors looked at her, she let go of the prince and cleared her throat.

"Heh, you really are babying him too much, cousin," Hayner said, snickering.

"I'm warning you, Hayner, if I hear Roxas curse or say anything rude, you are _**so**_dead," she returned, opening her locker and taking out a few books. "Well – I have to go to class now. You two can roam around – but promise me you'll stay out of trouble, okay?" She was eyeing the prince worriedly as she said this.

Hayner rolled his eyes. "There you go _again!"_

"Quiet, you. White Witch," Naminé said, pointing at herself, "White Witch's _cousin_," she said, pointing at Hayner. "I'll meet you two here at lunch time." With that, she began to walk away. To her dismay, people were still looking at her in a weird way, so she hugged her books tighter and avoided their eyes, and walked faster.

When Naminé entered her class, she found quite a number of her classmates crowding one of the tables in front. Dumping her books on her desk, she then joined the crowd, craning her neck to see what the fuss was about.

"Miss D is holding the open audition for this month's drama performance," someone on her left said. Naminé turned and saw Olette, biting her lips, as she stood on tiptoes like everyone else. "Yuna's trying to sort out the pamphlets to distribute around the school today..."

Nodding silently, Naminé finally saw the pamphlets on Yuna's table: '_OPEN AUDITION FOR __**SLEEPING BEAUTY**__', _it said in large, impressive fonts. Yuna, one of the active members of the drama club, was chatting excitedly to one of the girls about the upcoming performance.

"The audition's during lunchtime," Olette added. By now, she seemed rather nervous, and Naminé knew why: being the favourite-student type, Olette, of course, always tried to please the teachers. But Miss D was the only teacher she couldn't approach so far. The drama teacher really had a knack for identifying real acting talents in students. Once, Olette auditioned for the role of Juliette in _Romeo and Juliette, _and had received a rather harsh criticism from Miss D.

"Olette, dear," said Miss D, "I really hope you'd _at least _try to act from the bottom of your heart, with emotions. Perhaps you can try again next year, yes?"

Naminé smiled at that memory, but hastened to hide it as Olette asked her, "Are you going to the audition?"

"Me? Nah... Stage fright and all," she said. Olette continued biting her lips, and Naminé left her to it as she made her way back to her desk. Imagine what Miss D would say if _she _auditioned! It would probably be a waste of time, anyway. And Naminé was pretty sure that today's audition would not go so smoothly, for there must be couples in trouble seeking out Miss D's advice. Miss D's talent to detect lies, even those professionally disguised by professional liars, had made her the unofficial 'Love Counsellor' of Enix High.

Once Naminé sat down, suddenly something came to her mind.

Of _course._

-- X --

It was lunch break, and Naminé was walking quickly to her locker, talking to Hayner at the same time.

"_So you think Roxy should go for the audition?"_

"Yes – Miss D will definitely detect his lies," Naminé said, "she's really good at it. She's always about 'acting from the bottom of your heart' and stuff, I dunno – but it might work."

"_Well, okay. This registration thingy is gonna take a while – you'll have to go there with Roxas without me."_

"Very well," she said, feeling a little nervous about it. Hayner was at the office, registering himself and Prince Roxas for the programme. Having Hayner around had been pretty helpful, and the thought of doing things alone now seemed a little scary to her. "Is he there with you now?"

"_Yeah. He'll meet you at your locker – yo, Roxy! Roxy to locker! Go, boy!"_

"Hayner!"

Her cousin cackled before hanging up. Naminé groaned and put away her books. Okay. So she's finally going to know exactly what Prince Roxas was hiding from her... And _then _she'd need to work something out to send him back...

Send him back...?

Suddenly, the idea seemed a little awful... Why would she want the prince to go back? Naminé had enjoyed his company so far, although he spoke very little and was always serious. There was something about Prince Roxas' azure eyes that made her smile whenever she remembered them. Parting with him would also mean parting with Hayner – and once that happened, she would be all alone again...

"Err – are you okay, Naminé?"

Naminé looked up and saw – her heart immediately did something weird – Riku.

"I'm fine," she said quickly, shutting her locker. She smiled at him. "What's up?"

"You went out of class real quick just now," he said, and he nodded at the _Sleeping Beauty _pamphlet in her hand, "are you going for the audition?"

Naminé blushed and quickly said, "What? _Me? _Oh, no – no, no! I just – haha, I just thought, um, Selphie would like it. Yeah. Yeah!"

"Ah," said Riku, the corner of his mouth twisting into a smile. "I see."

"Don't tell me you thought _I _was going to – _Sleeping Beauty – _honestly!" Naminé felt herself going redder. Riku shrugged in his cool way.

"I was just asking. I see Olette's going for it _again."_

"I hope Miss D sees some improvements in her acting skills, then. She's been trying to get a role for three years now..."

"Well, maybe she's just not that good at it."

Naminé was about to reply to this when suddenly someone stood by her side. It was the prince.

"Hello, Naminé." Prince Roxas handed her a paper bag. Naminé peered into it and saw a few sandwiches and donuts. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked, his eyes meeting Riku's.

"Um, Riku, this is one of the exchange students we're having. He's—"

"Your pizza parlour friend," Riku said, nodding.

"Roxas Hikari," the prince corrected, extending his hand for Riku to shake, "I believe we've met."

"Only briefly," said Riku, shaking the prince's hand. "So you _are _enrolling here, eh? Watch out for Sora – he eats people with good grades. See you around, Naminé."

"Bye," Naminé said as she watched the silver haired guy walk away. "Well, that was quick of you, Roxas."

"Got here as fast as I could. Hayner said you have something important for me – what is it?" Naminé handed him the pamphlet, and a brief pause occurred as the prince read it. They began to slowly walk down the hallway, and people began to stare again.

"I think you'll be handy if I ever want to escape from Riku, you know," Naminé said.

"Hmm. He doesn't seem to like me all that much. He's probably curious about the relationship we have."

Naminé raised her eyebrows. "Really? What makes you think that?"

The prince actually smiled at this. "He fancies you a lot, Naminé, I know you know that. Anyway..._what is this?"_ he said as he stopped walking and held the pamphlet for her to see.

"It's an audition for the upcoming drama," she said, "and I want you to try out for the prince's role."

Prince Roxas frowned, his beautiful eyes confused. "Why?"

"Well, let's just say the teacher is rather gifted in matters regarding emotions and stuff," she said as she started to walk again. "She might be able to help us in a way. Besides, it must be easy to carry out the role of a prince, since you are one."

"Yes...yes, you're probably right."

-- X --

'_I will show you three kinds of love, my prince: the love of a father to his child, the unexpected love between two enemies, and the love of a man to a woman. Learn something from these three, and hopefully you will be able to rescue what you love.'_

Naminé sighed and closed the storybook. It would definitely take some time for Miss D to find the perfect prince and princess for her drama, because so far, only three people had auditioned, and the rest were troubled couples. Two out of the four couples broke up (the first guy got slapped by his girl, and the second girl simply ran away, crying), and the other two decided that they could talk about it.

"Very well – number eight!" Miss D said loudly.

"That's you, Roxas," Naminé said, tugging at the prince's sleeve to get his attention.

"Exactly _why _do I have to do this again?" he asked for the umpteenth time. He actually seemed rather nervous about this. "Do you not trust my words? Do you think I'm _lying _to you?"

"No, actually I _don't _know what I think – that's why we need Miss D's help—"

"Is number eight present?" Miss D asked, looking around the school theatre.

"He's right here!" Naminé said, standing up and pulling the prince to his feet. Everyone began to murmur once they saw the prince. By now, almost everyone had recognised the two exchange students. "Just go for it," she whispered, giving him a slight push. "Remember your lines. Good luck!"

Prince Roxas hesitantly walked down towards the stage and took the wooden sword.

"Your name, please?" Miss D said as she flipped to a new page in her notebook.

"Er – Roxas. Roxas Hikari."

"I have never seen you before, dear," she said, "are you new?"

"I'm an exchange student."

"Ah. Yes, yes of course. You and your friend caused quite a fuss when you passed by my class earlier this morning."

The prince scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry about that..."

"Very well, then. I'm sure you've seen the others auditioned for this role just now – are you clear about your scene?"

Naminé watched as the prince got into a battle stance, sword at the ready. "Yes, I think so," he said, his face turning serious again. Miss D seemed impressed as she leaned back to watch.

Naminé felt rather sorry for the extras who played the roles of the Witch's men – she was sure that the prince would have a hard time trying to restrain himself from _really_ attacking them.

"No one shall pass these woods except those brave enough to face the Witch's wrath!" said one of the extras.

"I do not fear you nor the Witch – come forth and meet your doom!" said Prince Roxas, a dangerous glint visible in his eyes and he plunged forward, attacking the extras one by one. Had it not for the cardboard props and the wooden sword, anyone would be fooled into thinking that there really _was_ a sleeping princess in the tower, and that there really was a wicked Witch and Prince Roxas really was the right prince who was going to rescue the princess. Seeing him with so much rage on that stage reminded Naminé of the night he got out of the storybook. Automatically, her hand touched the spot on her neck that was wounded by the prince's sword on that night.

Miss D scribbled something in her notebook and sat up straight. Prince Roxas had definitely caught her attention now as he climbed the stairs that led to the princess' bedroom, and kneeled down by the bed. Yuna was acting as the princess at the time being.

"My love for you has led me here," said the prince, taking Yuna's hand in his. The girls who were about to audition for the princess' role began to giggle from where they sat, Olette among them. "Nothing shall ever take us apart – not even this ghastly spell." As the prince leaned closer to Yuna, the girls actually began to squeal, and from where she sat, Naminé could see Yuna's face turning red. The girls burst into more giggles and squeals as Prince Roxas gave a small peck on Yuna's forehead, and everyone began to applause as the scene came to an end.

"Well, now!" said Miss D, as the prince helped Yuna to her feet. "That was indeed some performance, I must say, Mr. Hikari – you were so energetic during the sword fight, I was afraid you'd break the wooden sword!"

Everyone laughed at this, and Prince Roxas apologised.

"Unfortunately I have to tell you that I probably wouldn't want you in my cast for this drama." The audience began to protest at this, especially the girls. Miss D held up one hand before saying, "Your acting skills were believable, Roxas, but I did not feel any emotions from you at all – even when you first stepped onto that stage, I don't think you were genuinely nervous!"

"What, you're saying he's a robot?" someone said.

"Well, perhaps he is!" said Miss D. "Even at this moment, Roxas, the disappointment you're showing on your face feels unreal."

Naminé bit her lips as she looked at the prince: indeed, he seemed disappointed and rather pissed off at being called a robot – but she highly doubted that he knew what it meant.

"Are you saying I'm a liar, Miss D?" said the prince. Miss D placed her pencil down and stared at Prince Roxas.

"You don't even feel angry at me right now, do you, dear?" she asked calmly. The prince merely frowned at this, and seemed to be at a loss of words. "I've never seen the like of you... Your lack of emotion is obvious, but you really impress me with the way you conceal it."

The theater hall was silent now, and the clattering sound echoed as the prince dropped the wooden sword and gave a small bow to Miss D before getting off the stage. He did not look pleased as he walked towards Naminé, took her hand, and dragged her out of the theatre hall.

"Slow down, Roxas," Naminé said as the prince walked on. They finally arrived at a rather deserted hallway, and he let go of her hand.

"What exactly was the purpose of making me go through all that?" he asked once he had whirled around to face her. "To embarrass me in front of all those commoners?"

"No, listen to me—"

"She called me a _liar, _Naminé!" He was now pacing the hallway with his hands on his hips. "And what on earth is a _robot?"_

"No, she didn't," Naminé said. "She simply said that she couldn't feel your emotions—"

Prince Roxas stopped pacing as he heard this.

"I need you to be completely honest with me, Roxas," she went on. "How am I supposed to help you if you don't?"

The prince glared at her. "So you've never really trusted me all along? I've told you everything I know—"

"If that's the truth, then I'd be able to help you out already! But the problem now is – well – we're stuck! There's nothing I can do for you at the moment, and there's nothing I can do for you, _ever, _if you keep on being dishonest with me!"

The prince shook his head. "I don't think I will ever get the chance to rescue my kingdom if this goes on." He gave one final glare at her before walking away.

"Don't you DARE walk away from me!" Naminé shouted, catching up with the prince and standing in front of him. She had had enough of people walking away from her... She had been pretty much ignored by her parents all her life, and she was not going to let Prince Roxas ignore her now.

"Get out of my way," the prince said in a dangerous voice.

"I said I'll help you and I _will!" _Naminé said. Prince Roxas began to push her away, but she fought back. "There's nothing to be ashamed of about not having emotions—"

"DO I NOT LOOK LIKE I'M ANGRY RIGHT NOW?" he bellowed, his blue eyes burning with what seemed to be anger. "I AM NOT HEARTLESS!"

"Nobody said you were!" Naminé said. She began to see what the prince's problem _really _was: people had been calling him a heartless person all his life – and now, he was afraid of actually _being_ heartless. Prince Roxas shoved her to one side and started to walk away again, but she caught up with him once more. She stood in front of him, thus blocking his way, and slapped him across the face, hard.

"You – you—! How _dare _you—!"

"Don't," Naminé warned, lifting her hand once more, ready to slap him again if he made the wrong move, "don't lie to me."

Prince Roxas frowned, with one hand pressed against his cheek where she had slapped him.

"I know you're afraid of being called heartless. But those people who did call you that barely even know you – you can't let them judge you like that," she said. "Please, _please _be completely honest with me."

With that, she slapped him once more, just as hard as she did the last time. The prince staggered backwards, and was ready to yell at her again, but she cut across him:

"You don't need to fake the anger, Roxas. It's okay if you don't feel anything – it doesn't mean you're heartless. I can help you. Now...are you really pissed off because I slapped you? Tell me what you feel. _Show me _what you _really _feel."

Naminé did not lower her hand. She was ready to slap him again if she needed to, and the prince seemed to understand this. If he were to lie again, Naminé would simply slap him again. So, very slowly, the prince's frown disappeared. All the rage written across his face was erased, just like that. Standing in front of her right now was the most expressionless person Naminé had ever seen in her life.

Sighing, Prince Roxas turned away from her. In a monotonous voice, he said, "When my mother died, I didn't shed a tear. I didn't even feel like I'm going to miss her. What does that make me? A monster?"

Naminé took his hand. "Everyone has a weakness, Roxas. Yours is...well...a bit unusual, but that's why you need the White Witch's help, right?"

The prince turned to look at her, and gave her a small smile.

"I said I'll help you – and I _will," _she said firmly.

"Thank you," he said. "And I'm sorry. For...for being dishonest with you and your cousin."

"No problem," she said. "I'm the White Witch, remember? Don't you worry – we'll sort this out in no time!"

'_I hope you know what you're doing, Naminé!' _said a small voice in her head.

* * *

**A/N:** Phew! At last! It seemed like I was never gonna get this done, but TADA! Hope you enjoyed it. Please tell me what you think! Reviews keep me alive! 8D

Oh yeah -- Hayner's car is the roofless-type of car...so that's how Pence managed to just jump in without having to open the door. (I just feel like I need to explain this...lol)


	10. Chapter 10

**Once Upon a Time...**

**A/N: **DUN DUN DUN! Is this REAL? Could this POSSIBLY be an update? Stick around to find out! XD (Hello guys. Yes, it's an update.)

- 9 –

"I admit...I am confused."

Naminé merely observed Prince Roxas as he clutched his head in both hands, frowning. School was over, and the two of them were in Naminé's room (she was on her bed and he was sitting on a chair). Naminé had told Hayner all about the audition, and had decided to have the prince over at her house for the evening to see what she could do about the whole situation. He mama was delighted to see the 'sweet, polite transfer student' again, and when they arrived from school, she started to bombard Prince Roxas with questions. Thankfully Naminé managed to pull the prince away and lock themselves up in her room.

"How so? I thought you have no feelings," Naminé replied calmly after a while, breaking the silence. Prince Roxas looked at her immediately with a frown. She lifted her eyebrows. "And that anger – is it genuine, or are you acting again?"

He sighed. He really seemed agitated...which was confusing Naminé. She didn't want him to pretend in front of her – she wanted to see the _real _him.

"Nami? Nami!" came her mother's voice from downstairs. "I'm going out with Jecht, will you two be okay?"

"Yes, mama, we'll be _fine!"_ she hollered back, rolling her eyes. She heard the door closed as her mama left. "I'm sorry about her," she said apologetically. "Look – why don't we just forget everything that happened today?"

Prince Roxas didn't say anything.

"Let's forget about the audition, about that slap (I'm sorry about that), about your kingdom, your father and brother—"

Here, he opened his mouth to protest, but she held up a hand and managed to silence him.

"No, listen to me, Roxas. You have to focus – if we don't figure out this thing, you will _never _be able to help your family. Now...forget about your mission, about Axel, and school. Forget about Hayner's crazy driving skills that almost killed us today—"

The prince sniggered as he heard this – and Naminé clapped her hands together as she saw his reaction.

"—And let's talk about..._that."_ She pointed at the prince's smile. "You just sniggered. We know now that that wasn't your honest reaction, since you basically are emotionless. So, my question is: why did you react the way you did when I mentioned Hayner's drunktard behaviour earlier this morning? Is it, like, an obligation or something?"

Prince Roxas leaned against the chair and folded his arms. For a moment he said nothing, and then he reached the nearest item (which just happened to be a sharpener) – and casually threw it to Naminé. With a squeak, she avoided the sharpener, which landed on her bed. Now bits and pieces of wood dirtied her bed.

"What was that for?" she yelled. The prince remained expressionless as he reached for the second-nearest item to him (a Tupperware filled with pens, pencils, markers and other art items), and raised it into the air as if he was going to throw _that _to Naminé. "Okay, okay, STOP!" she said, standing up and grabbing the Tupperware from him. But still, the prince remained expressionless. "Well? Aren't you going to explain yourself?"

He shrugged, his face unfathomable. "What do you mean?"

Naminé rolled her eyes, feeling seriously annoyed as she sat down on her bed once more. "Don't act all clueless! My bed's a mess now because of you."

"Was that annoying?"

"Heck yeah!"

"You misunderstood me. I meant getting no reactions from me – was _that _annoying?" Prince Roxas asked monotonously.

She suddenly saw what that was all about. "Well...yes, it was annoying..."

The prince nodded. "That's exactly why I reacted the way I did. When I was young, my brother told me that it was tiring to be around me because I gave no response whatsoever to everything he said or did. I was a dull boy. When this went on, people mistook this..._disease _of mine as arrogance. The servants wished me good morning, and they got a blank stare from me as a reply. Princesses came from all over the world to my father's ball, and they giggled and joked when they were around me and my brother – and all they got was a blank stare from me as a reply. Now, why do you _think _I give out fake reactions to what others say or do?"

There actually was a tinge of sarcasm in his question, and Naminé felt a pang of guilt. "Sorry," she muttered. "Okay – so, you've been faking your emotions for how long now?"

A pause occurred when Prince Roxas did a quiet calculation, and then finally he said, "I believe I cannot recall."

_Great. Just great..._

"All right then... D'you – d'you think that...somehow, after pretending for so long – d'you think you _have _developed emotions now? Like, maybe some of those 'fake' reactions are actually real?"

"Hmm. That is an interesting question," he admitted monotonously.

"And I take back what I said – please show _some _emotions when you talk to me, please. This is getting rather..."

"...Annoying?" Prince Roxas provided, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes, that," she said. "Think carefully about what I asked, okay? I'm gonna get you something to eat."

"That won't be necessary."

"Okay then, I'll get something for myself...I'm starving. Stay put, kay?"

The prince gave no reply, so she left the room and headed for the kitchen. When she returned to her room, Prince Roxas was actually on the phone. Naminé raised her eyebrows at him, silently asking who it was on the line.

"She is here now – your cousin is requesting for you," said the prince in a stoic voice, stretching out the hand holding his cell phone. The action somehow made her smile – the name 'Prince Roxas' usually reminded her of wizards and castles and magical beings, and a very reluctant Mama, reading out the story for her before going to bed...but now, seeing the prince in modern clothes and holding out a cell phone for her – it seemed simply ridiculous and so out of touch with reality that it made her smile.

"Naminé? Your cousin is requesting for you," Prince Roxas repeated.

"Oh, I heard you the first time," she said taking the cell phone from him, still smiling. "Yeah, hello Hayner. What's up?"

"_I, being a brilliant person, just had this brilliant idea."_

"Okay, O Brilliant Cousin, shoot."

"_You need to talk to my dad."_

"Your dad?" she repeated. "About the prince, you mean?"

"_Oh no, I thought you'd like to chat with him about how annoying Olette is – __**of course **__it's about Roxas! Hello! Am I here for a picnic or somethin'? I'm here to help!"_

Naminé rolled her eyes. "Okay, okay. Sheesh."

"_Anyway, I was saying – you need to talk to my dad. I mean, Uncle Matt is awesome and all, but he's never managed to solve his own crazy axe-murderer thingy – how is he supposed to help _you _out if he failed at his own mission? Okay, that came out really offensive. Didn't mean it. Sorry!"_

"It's all right," Naminé said slowly. Her papa hadn't been much of a help. When she thought about how her papa had put Olette first over her (well, kind of, but still! One would think a fictional character coming to life is enough to get the attention of one's own father, but _no, _not in this case!), Naminé immediately agreed: Hayner had a point there, really "You've got a point. I need all the help I can get now. So, when can I talk to him? Is he even available to chat with his niece?"

"_Actually, he's on hold right now. Enjoy talking!"_

Naminé swallowed. Hayner's dad wasn't exactly the good-natured, always-helping-out-nephews-and-nieces-in-trouble type of uncle. He's a busy person, always working abroad and rarely at home. Of course, all of that munny on Hayner must come from _somewhere, _and the source was Hayner's dad. He was as mysterious as any other rich, rarely-at-home uncles there are, so Naminé didn't really know him. The thought of speaking to him just made her mind go blank for a moment.

"_Hello, Naminé. I hope you are well?"_

"Uh – umm, yes, yes I am—" _Yes I am, what? Uncle? Sir? _"Yes, I'm well, sir!"

She heard her uncle chuckling at the other end of the line. _"Let's not talk like that. We're a family, no?"_

"Err – yes, I'm sorry," Naminé blurted out. The prince was now frowning at her, and she mouthed, "I'll explain later – eat up!" before exiting her bedroom and entering the small guest room next door. She shut the door behind her and sat on the neat bed.

"_I always have that effect on my colleagues. They always feel the need to call me 'sir' even over a casual cup of tea," _Hayner's dad went on with a little sigh. Naminé laughed nervously.

"Shows how much they respect you, I guess," she said casually.

"_Yes, but whatever I do, I've never been able to make Hayner stop calling me 'pops' – that is one person who seriously needs to respect me just a little bit more."_

"That's Hayner for you!" she said. Her uncle sighed again.

"_Well! Let's stop this chit-chat, shall we? Time is gold. Now...tell me about this prince you've got."_

"Okay – umm, his name is Roxas; he's the one with the heart of stone..." From there, Naminé began to tell her uncle how things had been going on, how they had worked out that the prince could basically feel nothing at all, how the prince had been faking his anger all along, and how she had hit a dead end.

"I mean, how _do _you teach someone to feel something?" she finally asked. Her uncle had been silent while she told him the story, and now he gave a thoughtful, "Hmm."

After a short pause, Hayner's dad spoke: _"Something you said earlier managed to catch my attention, Naminé. You said he's been faking his anger?"_

"Well, yeah – and every other emotion, really."

"_Did he express much of this 'every other emotion' as much as he expressed fake anger?"_

"Not really...he's always serious and...well, _serious."_

"_All those years of faking emotions must have affected him. And I believe, from what you've told me, that the first emotion he's managed to master all by himself, without realising it, is anger."_

Naminé thought about this, and she could see that her uncle might be right. From the very moment he popped out of the storybook, Prince Roxas had been violent and angry. If he wasn't being angry, he was being serious.

"_...But of course, you should know better, you've been with him all this while. This is just my opinion, Naminé."_

"No, I think you're right," she said, frowning. "I wonder why I've never thought of that before."

Suddenly, her uncle began to laugh. _"Oh, trust me – dealing with this curse will make you wonder about a lot of things. Almost drive _me _crazy – definitely drove your father out of his mind, as far as I know. Do you know what your father and I did to Allen?"_

"Who?"

"_Allen, the axe-murderer!"_

"Well...no... What did you do?"

"_We fed him sleeping pills almost every day for an entire week! At least that managed to slow him down – he was so sluggish, he couldn't lift the magical axe for three days afterwards..."_

"Wow, you must have had a really hard time," she said. "I should be thankful...a _prince..."_

"_Yes – you are among the lucky ones, I believe... Anyway – back to your problem, Naminé, we're going off-topic here. Forgive me...where were we? Oh yes – anger. You might want to start there. Test him on other emotions and see how he responds to them."_

"I will – thanks for being brilliant," Naminé said, remembering Hayner's earlier words about being a brilliant person. "I think Hayner's inherited your brilliance."

"_But not my manners, apparently."_

Naminé laughed out loud at this because it was very true.

"_I told you about the sleeping pills because I want you to always think outside the box," _Hayner's dad went on, _"think differently, think of crazy impossible things – because, after all, we _are_ dealing with something crazy and impossible...Very well, Naminé. I wish you the very best of luck," _said her uncle from the other end of the line, _"If you wish to contact me, just tell Hayner to do it and I will see what I can do."_

It really felt awkward, as she really wasn't that close to Hayner's dad at all, so it really took all the courage she could muster to say, "Thank you very, very much, sir!"

Hayner's dad simply chuckled before saying, _"Uncle, Naminé, _uncle. _Have a good evening."_ With that, he hung up. Naminé took a deep breath before lowering the cell phone.

"Anger, huh?" she murmured, standing up and getting out of the guest room. When she entered how own room, the prince had already finished the pasta, and was simply staring at nothing. He looked up when she entered the room.

"Is everything all right?" he asked.

"That," said Naminé, sitting down next to the prince, "was Hayner's father. He knows a lot more than _my _father does, so Hayner contacted him just in case he could help... And he's been a lot of help, just from one phone call."

"Your family really is made up of amazing sorcerers...sometimes I forget that I am in the company of the White Witch..."

This little speech made Naminé laugh, and even as the prince fumed about it, she felt really thankful that someone could, after all, help her out. She wasn't doomed after all, and neither was Prince Roxas.

– X –

**A/N: **Aaand she leaves things hanging again~! I noticed something really disturbing about this chapter: it is only 6 pages long, while the previous chapter was 12 pages long. D: I'm really sorry!

It's been a while since I've updated anything, and to be completely honest, I haven't been writing at all, all this while. I kinda got into depression, and when that happens, I tell you, it's like being in a very deep hole and you just can't climb out of it – and everything seems uninteresting to you. I stopped writing, I stopped drawing, I stopped playing new songs on the piano – everything's just so completely difficult and horrible.

I've also been having a lot of unpleasant thoughts of "going away", but after a talk with my parents in the car on the way to college (which means I couldn't escape or avoid the conversation!), we managed to straighten things out and BOOM! Here I am, writing again after oh-so-long!

:D

I'm happy to be back! I hope you are happy to see _Once Upon a Time _again. :D


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